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THE TEXTBOOK 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE TEXTBOOK 

HOW TO USE AND 
JUDGE IT 



BY 

ALFRED LAWRENCE HALL-QUEST 

PROFESSOR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION AND 
DIRECTOR OF SCHOOL AFFILIATION 

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 

AUTHOR OF "SUPERVISED STUDY" 

EDITOR OF SERIES ON SUPERVISED STUDY 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1918 

All rights reserved 



?* 



ffi 



Copyright, 1918, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1918. 






SEP 19 1318 



Nortaooti 3|resB 

J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick «fe Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



— yu* 



■ I 



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DEDICATED 

TO THE MEMORY 

OF MY SISTER 

HORTENSE 



PREFACE 

In presenting this discussion on the Textbook to the school 
public I confess to a considerable amount of fear and trembling, 
not unlike that of the pioneer who penetrates the dark un- 
known wilderness, or of him who manipulates his acids and 
compounds in the search for some chemical truth. I have 
sought in vain for any treatment of this subject in book form. 
After wrestling with the problem for many months I have 
grounds to suspect the reasons for no earlier attempt having 
been made to organize the various aspects of this subject into 
some sort of unified study. 

I shall anticipate the critic's attack by saying that I know, 
perhaps better than he, the limitations of my effort. My real 
purpose in offering the book to school administrators and 
teachers is to arouse, if possible, someone among them to 
construct a volume on the textbook that will be more adequate 
than my own attempt. Graduate students will find many 
fascinating problems in this field. Every teacher who shares 
the responsibility of selecting texts must feel the thrill of 
exploration in this almost untouched department of instruc- 
tion. There are, to be sure, many studies on the textbook 
being made by committees assigned the difficult task of 
recommending suitable school books in the various subjects ; 
but many of these lie undiscovered in the offices of school 
superintendents, and have not been made available beyond 
the school system immediately concerned in their use. 

vii 



viii Preface 

In this book I have sought to analyze as simply and com- 
prehensively as possible the reasons for the prominence of the 
textbook in American education. The history of the textbook 
is one of those uncultivated fields of research that awaits the 
magic touch of deep scholarship. Administrative considera- 
tions of the textbook are so closely allied with some of the most 
delicate situations in the management of public education, 
that I have found it difficult to do justice to some of the moot 
questions involved in this aspect of the subject. The experi- 
enced school official will be able to read more between the lines 
than in the type itself. The textbook as a tool, as a source 
of knowledge, as an interpretation of truth, as a guide, and as 
a means of inspiring in the pupil a will to learn links up very 
closely with my view of education as a means of training the 
pupil to study. I do not minimize any of the great move- 
ments that now occupy the attention of educational leaders. 
The problems of education are so immense and so numerous 
that they must be viewed from several angles. One of these 
points of view is supervised study or the provision in each class 
period for a certain amount of training in how to study. Skill 
in handling the textbook is just as important as skill in hand- 
ling the tools in manual training or household arts. It is not 
the only tool for the mastery of the abstract subjects. There 
are others equally important, but in this volume I have con- 
fined my efforts to the textbook. 

It is with the hope that school administrators and teachers 
will find in the following pages some few suggestions pointing 
the way to a larger study of this whole subject that I venture 
to offer these pages for their perusal and criticism. The 
material grows out of a course of lectures that I had the privi- 
lege of delivering before the Teachers Association of Rochester, 



Preface ix 

New York. What I then said regarding the textbook seemed 
to meet with a response so cordial that I have thought other 
teachers might find in such a discussion points of contact with 
problems of their own. 

I am greatly indebted to my colleagues, Miss Frances 
Jenkins and Dr. Cyrus D. Mead, for permission to use some of 
the material that they helped to evolve. The members of 
my Seminar on Secondary Education have rendered willing 
and efficient service, and to them I express sincere acknowl- 
edgments. To Dean W. P. Burris of College for Teachers 
of University of Cincinnati, I am grateful for a critical reading 
of most of the manuscript. For whatever there may be in 
the volume that has merit I am indebted to the many whose 
names are scattered throughout the pages that follow. The 
sins of commission and omission are my own. 

A. L. H. 

University of Cincinnati, 
January 4, 1918. 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

The Textbook — Its Place in Modern Education . . . . i 
The Textbook as a Problem for Investigation ; a suggested course 
on the textbook. Why is the Textbook so Prominent? The 
Inadequacy of the Textbook ; the objections considered. Why 
Textbooks Exist; i. They are a compact arrangement of educa- 
tional material. 2. They serve as ready reference books later 
in life. 3. They provide for a uniform education throughout 
the country. 4. They make possible an orderly pursuit of the 
course. 5. They are a definite help to correct studying. 6. They 
supply directions for applying the subject. 7. They record subject 
development. 8. They help to determine the various levels of school 
systems and the progress of the pupils. Summary. Questions and 
Problems. References. 

CHAPTER II 

A Brief History of the Textbook 14 

The Need for a History of the Textbook. Medieval Text- 
books. The Renaissance Textbooks. Textbooks in Colonial 
America; only a few books available; the religious character of 
early American schools and texts. Early Spelling Books; con- 
tents of early spellers. Grammars, Arithmetics; characteristics 
of early arithmetics. Algebra. Geography. Languages. His- 
tory. General Criticism of Early American Schoolbooks. The 
Rapid Increase of Textbooks. Summary. Questions and 
Problems. References. 

CHAPTER III 

The Textbook — Its Meaning and Methods of Supply . . 43 

The Textbook Denned. Kinds of Textbooks; Magazines, 
General literature: classification on the basis of style. The Free 

xi 



xii Table of Contents 

PAGE 

Textbook ; general distribution of free texts. The Advantages 
of Free Textbooks. The Disadvantages of the Free Textbook. 
Uniform Textbooks ; arguments for and against uniformity. 
The Cost of Textbooks ; cost of making textbooks : cost of textbooks 
to the citizen: convenient method of introducing free texts. State 
Publication of Textbooks. Summary. Questions and Prob- 
lems. References. 

CHAPTER IV 

The Selection and Judging of Textbooks 73 

Selection of Textbooks, the Business of Experts. The Book- 
man a Valuable Servant of Education. Methods of Adoption. 
When Textbooks Should Be Adopted. How Texts Begin To Be 
Written. The Selection of Textbooks. Standards of Judging 
Textbooks in Cincinnati ; Illustrations of Some Principles in 
Textbook Making. History: vocational mathematics : civic biology. 
Other Standards for Judging Textbooks; Specific Standards 
for Arithmetic Texts. The Forsythe Plan ; Cincinnati Standards 
in Arithmetic. Klapper's Standards in Arithmetic. Smith's 
Standards. Geometry. Illustrations of Modern Texts in Arith- 
metic. Texts in General Mathematics. Qualities of Textbook 
in Chemistry and Physics. Geography Standards in Cincinnati 
Standards for Readers. Standards in Spelling and Language. 
Phcenixville, Pa., Cincinnati. Suggestive Standards for History 
Texts. Textbooks in Foreign Language. Various Standards 
Summarized. Summary. Questions and Problems. References. 

CHAPTER V 

The Textbook as a Tool . . . 122 

The Importance of Knowing One's Tools. Aids to Study in 
Textbooks. I. Suggestions by the Author. The Syllabus; 

The syllabus preceding the chapter; illustrations ; The summary or 
syllabus that follows the chapter; illustrations. Questions and 
Problems following each chapter; illustrations. Summaries 
throughout the chapter and at its close ; illustrations of intra- 
textual summaries. References for additional reading. Illus- 
trations ; examples of textbook illustrations in history, language, 
science; Maps; Diagrams. Summary. II. Suggestions by 






Table of Contents xiii 

the Teacher. Evaluated Assignments. Explanation and In- 
terpretation. The Open Book. Summary. III. Reactions 
by the Pupils. Underscoring ; Notations on inserted pages, 
fly leaves. " Cross References." Summaries. The Care of 
the Book. Summary. Questions and Problems. References. 

CHAPTER VI 

The Textbook as a Guide j^j 

The Functions of the Textbook as a Guide. A Guide to Refer- 
ence Reading. The Study of the Dictionary. A Guide to Cor- 
relation. A Guide to Applications. The Topical Assignment. 
A Guide to Reorganization. Summary. Questions and Prob- 
lems. References. 

CHAPTER VII 

The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 167 

How Knowledge Began. The Meaning of School Subjects. 
Principles underlying the use of the textbook as a source of 
knowledge. Some of the Gains of Thinking. The Paramount 
Question of Education To-day. Knowledge must be viewed as 
a system. Three Functions of the Textbook. Important Factors 
in the Structure of the Textbook as a Source of Knowledge. 
Dates of publication. The title of the book. Table of Contents 
and the Index. The arrangement of material. Summary. 
Questions and Problems. References. 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth . . .183 
The Observation Point of Knowledge. The Necessary Bias 
of a Textbook. Factors of Interpretation. Knowing the author 
and the publisher. The Preface. The Introduction. Book 
Reviews. The evaluation and adaptation of subject-matter; Scales 
and standards. The Elementary Subjects: American History. 
Arithmetic. Spelling. Language and Grammar. High School 
Subjects: Algebra. Texts. Geometry. Trigonometry. Solid 
Geometry. Limits. Texts. General Mathematics. Zo'dlogy. 



xiv Table of Contents 



PAGE 



Criteria for Science Texts. General Science Texts. History. 
Summary. Questions and Problems. References. 

i 
CHAPTER IX 

The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration .... 230 
The Inspirational Review. The purpose of the review. Pre- 
senting educational value of the course, fostering enthusiasm for the 
course, constructing a background. Summary. Method of 
Teaching. Reviewing of related experience; inspirational previews 
in textbooks. Energetic first impression. Outlining the term's 
work. Summary. General Summary. Illustrations. Class- 
room technic. Questions and Problems. References. 

Appendix 247 

Index 257 



THE TEXTBOOK 



TEXTBOOK, HOW TO USE IT AND 

JUDGE IT 

CHAPTER I 

THE TEXTBOOK — ITS PLACE IN MODERN EDUCATION 

The Textbook as a Problem for Investigation. In these 
days when every part of the school system is undergoing 
supervision and criticism, and when reorganization is the cry 
of the hour, there is great need of a thoroughgoing examina- 
tion into the intricate problem of the textbook. It is in the 
textbook that one expects to find the essentials of a subject, 
the general outline of a course. The teacher and the textbook 
are the two pillars of instruction. Each without the other 
is inadequate, as a rule. Educators and school administrators 
have begun to ask serious questions of textbook makers, for 
the maker of textbooks is one of the most influential forces 
in the shaping of educational policy. The need has been 
felt of late for courses on textbook making, to be given in 
schools of education. So far as the writer knows there is no 
course of this kind offered in any of our colleges or universities. 

A suggested course on the textbook. Such a course on the 
textbook might embrace the following topics : The History of 
Textbooks; Current Scope of Subject-Matter in Textbooks; 
Organization of Textbook Material from the Standpoint of Child 



2 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

and of Adolescent Psychology; Arrangement of Material with 
Directions for the Proper Studying of It; How to Frame Ques- 
tions in Textbooks and to Select Problems of Application; 
Methods of Gathering Material for the Textbook ; How to Pre- 
pare the Manuscript for the Publisher ; Methods of Publication ; 
Compensation of authors ; Revisions ; Collecting Reviews ; Stand- 
ards for Judging Textbooks. Running through the course would be 
repeated references to the Psychology and the Pedagogy of Reading. 

With the growth of the need of textbooks, their variety, 
their frequent revisions, and the consequent extension of the 
publishing business with its plans of marketing and of seeking 
adoptions, many difficult problems have arisen. Various 
schemes of publication are being tried. The methods of 
textbook distribution are being carefully considered. So 
large is the place occupied by the textbook in American educa- 
tion that wise counsel and dispassionate investigation are 
imperative if results for the best progress in the schools are 
to be expected. 

Why Is the Textbook So Prominent? Among the questions 
that must be considered is the reason for the prevailing promi- 
nence of the textbook in the public schools of America. 
Some writers on this subject believe that if there were a larger 
percentage of highly trained teachers in the American school 
there would be correspondingly much less need of the school 
book. This seems to imply that in the hands of the many 
inadequately trained teachers the textbook becomes a mere 
crutch or a model. The teacher depends on the book ; its 
organization and its contents are followed in minute detail. 
No one who understands school conditions will deny the truth 
of this criticism. It would be unfair, however, to assign the 
chief reason to the large number of insufficiently trained 



Its Place in Modern Education 3 

teachers. Doubtless the best teacher in the public school 
profits by the use of a text. In fact, without a good text- 
book the course would be much more laborious and much less 
effective. Furthermore, much of the difficulty in entrance 
requirements lies in the lack of organization of the new 
courses. The most liberal friends of modern school subjects 
will admit that many of these courses are still so indefinite 
in scope and sequence of material that, for administrative 
purposes, it is very difficult to adjust them to needful order 
and system in even a flexible scheme of entrance requirements. 
President Thwing calls the textbook a teacher of teachers. 
By means of a text or several texts the teacher introduces the 
pupil to a world of knowledge he little suspected. It is 
through the windows of the textbook that teacher and pupil 
glimpse the immensities of truth, stretching as far as intellect 
and dreams can penetrate. Not that this is the only outlook, 
but it is indispensable, at least in American education. A few 
years ago an English writer made the following observation : * 

The method of actual teaching in American schools differs 
much from that in use in England. It centers in the textbook. 
Nothing strikes an English teacher more forcibly on first listening 
to lessons in American schools than the important place the text- 
book takes. . . . The success of the method is aided in America 
by several conditions, as yet rare in England. First, the textbooks 
are much better than ours. . . . Often a teacher in England can- 
not make her pupils depend upon themselves for getting up a 
subject, because the only textbook that can be afforded is meager 
or even obsolete ; and she is the only person who has access to a 
really good book. 

1 Quoted from Chas. H. Thurber on "What about Textbooks?" Outlook, 
Sept. 13, 1913. 



4 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

The Inadequacy of the Textbook. It is now being advo- 
cated by many educators that teachers should break away 
from slavish dependence upon the textbook, and should plan 
courses that include much supplementary material and many 
books. All of us, doubtless, would agree that it is no longer 
advisable to use only one book as a text or to follow this one 
blindly. But it would be equally unpedagogical to abandon 
this aid entirely in all courses. Here as elsewhere moderation 
and rational selection are most important. It is well, how- 
ever, to bear in mind the criticism formulated by Charles 
McMurry. 1 

i. The textbook cannot give adequate treatment of important 
topics. 

2. It cannot easily set up problems and give fit suggestions to 
their progressive, independent working out. 

3. The reflective tracing out of relations in which a central 
topic stands to other topics, gained through causal connection, 
comparisons based on likeness and contrast, and other forms of 
association — this considerate balancing up and organizing of 
thought material can be done very inadequately in a textbook 
treatment. 

These defects, however, are not necessarily inherent in the 
nature of textbooks. They doubtless exist but they need not 
continue to do so. If by " adequate treatment of important 
topics " is meant adequate for the pupil at any particular stage 
of educational development, then this defect could be removed 
by a careful evaluation of material based on a sound doctrine 
of educational values. If by " adequate " is meant a large, 
comprehensive treatment, then we find this possible through 

1 Conflicting Principles of Teaching, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1914, p. 86. 



Its Place in Modern Education 5 

the author's additional reference material and suggestions 
for study. Even if it were possible to have a comprehensive 
and well-unified discussion of any one topic, it may be ques- 
tioned if this would be wise. Beyond a consideration of cer- 
tain fundamentals, the textbook should be mainly suggestive. 

The second objection has already been met in many of the 
most recent textbooks. Their problems and suggestions for 
independent study are much better than could be devised by 
many teachers. But, granting the validity of Dr. McMurry's 
objection, it may still be doubted if the textbook should be 
exhaustive in these problems and directions. Necessarily, 
they are given in limited number, but this need not be regarded 
as a defect. One must still expect the teacher to apply 
educational material to local needs and local conditions, and 
to adapt source-material to educational ends. 

The third objection is most searching. No textbook can 
perform the processes of thinking. But under the direction 
of a teacher who knows the psychology of study it is possible 
to find causal connections, to make comparisons and contrasts, 
and in general to carry on the process of organization. This 
is the teacher's task. To some extent it is also the author's, 
and among textbook makers one finds not a few who attempt 
this service. 

Why Textbooks Exist. Several reasons may be assigned 
for the large place occupied by the textbook in American 
education. 

1 . The textbook holds a central place in school work because 
it offers a compact arrangement of educational material. If 
one seeks the meaning of physics, a glance through a num- 
ber of textbooks gives one the scope of this subject. All of 
us resort to such compendiums of knowledge for educational 



6 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

purposes. The textbook expresses (in varying degrees of 
adequacy to be sure) the prevailing conceptions of the respec- 
tive subjects in the program of study, and in this way makes it 
possible to formulate a scheme of training that will more 
satisfactorily relate to the pupils the ends of education, as 
these ends are determined for the several school levels. 

The text, by the amount of space given to various topics, 
shows in general the relative values of different parts of the 
subject. There is, of course, wide divergence of viewpoint 
in this matter, and the author's apportionment of space may 
not be a true indication of the essential values in the subject. 
The author's selection of material does exercise, however, a 
very direct influence on the course. He puts, as it were, a 
stamp on the scope and quality and accuracy of the subject. 
From him the pupil obtains perhaps the only conception of 
the subject he will ever be able to get or to use. For this 
reason a textbook must be very carefully examined lest its 
bias prove seriously unfair to the pupil's comprehension of 
the course. 

2. Not only is the textbook a compendium of knowledge 
for school purposes, but it serves also the valuable end of 
ready reference after the individual has completed his formal 
education. No one is able to retain all the details of his 
various courses of study. It would probably be undesirable, 
even if it were possible, to carry through life a large number 
of principles or facts for which one might have only occasional 
need. But after the pupil has completed the study of funda- 
mental material, as suggested in the textbook, he can refer to 
the textbook in later years and thereby refresh his memory 
on needed points. Many of the rules in mathematics, for 
example, are easily forgotten by persons who have had no 



Its Place in Modern Education 7 

need of their frequent application. The emergency call can 
be answered by consulting the textbook. After all, education 
is mainly a means of supplying ideas and a knowledge of 
sources. Only the facts which become habits by use in our 
callings remain in our close possession. The rest of our 
educational experience is available by our knowing the de- 
positories of desired data. 

3. Another reason for the universality of the textbook lies 
in its provision for a uniform education throughout the country. 
However ardent supporters we may be of individual education, 
it must be agreed that a degree of uniformity is equally essen- 
tial. There must be a concept of arithmetic common to 
California and New York. Grammatical usage must be 
fairly uniform in a democratic education. Every subject 
must connote and to some extent denote the same thing all 
over our country if citizens are to understand one another, and 
to cooperate in democracy's business. By means of the text- 
book the general meanings of subject-matter are spread from 
coast to coast. 

4. A fourth reason for the widespread use of the text- 
book lies in its provision for an orderly pursuit of the course. 
It gives teacher and pupil a tangible link that unites the many 
details of the subject. This, of course, is possible without the 
aid of a book, but it is doubtful if an exclusive lecture or collat- 
eral reading method would be advisable in high school work, 
not to say in the elementary school. There is a growing 
opinion that the lecture method is not the best even in college. 
The author's arrangement of material in the textbook is his 
conception of the course, but frequently he will suggest a 
possible procedure in the sequence of chapters different from 
the order he has used. In the book the teacher finds large 



8 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

units of instruction (main divisions, such as the Civil War 
or Fractions) and smaller divisions (sections or chapters) 
which serve as bases for assignments. In whatever way the 
teacher may reorganize the book for teaching purposes, its 
treatment of the course does greatly aid in unifying the work 
and in making possible the division of education into various 
teaching units. 

5. The textbook in many instances is a definite help to 
correct studying. This is true, especially, of more recent texts. 
By means of syllabi, summaries, emphasized points for study, 
outlines for reference reading, and many titles of reference 
books, as well as by questions for review and original work, 
the author seeks to make the pupil aware of a certain amount 
of technic in the learning of a subject. The importance of 
this sort of textbook making in the development of study out- 
side of school cannot be overestimated. The pupil needs 
a certain amount of direction if his studying is to be pursued 
economically and effectively. The " study-helps " are not 
crutches but guide posts. 

6. The best kind of textbook, one written by a wide-awake 
author who appreciates the life-value of his subject, not only 
gives direction for study but it supplies directions for the 
application of the subject. To many teachers this is an in- 
valuable help. Under proper direction the practical prob- 
lems stated in the textbook become invaluable also to the 
pupil. It probably is true that the time saved for teachers and 
pupils, the rich suggestiveness and the basis they supply 
for testing progress, make the problems and directions for 
further study indispensable. Without them the schoolbook 
would be of comparatively little service in any public school 
course; and many texts have failed to become popular or 



Its Place in Modem Education 9 

serviceable very largely because they lacked the needful 
suggestions and specific guidance in applying the subject to 
vital needs, or in leading the pupil to more independent and 
thoughtful study of the subject. 

7. Of less value to the teacher and pupil but significant 
for students of the history of education is the record of subject 
development provided by textbooks from year to year. A 
study of textbooks in grammar and in history, for example, 
shows how greatly the point of view regarding this subject 
has changed. A series of texts in any one subject records the 
progress of thinking in a particular field. Without textbooks 
it would be difficult, if indeed at all possible, to trace the his- 
torical growth of educational material. The textbook, like 
the school itself, reflects the age in which it was evolved. 
Our texts to-day are in many instances a vast improvement 
over those of a decade ago. It may safely be predicted that 
like improvement will take place within the next ten years. 
Having the old and the latest texts, there is the fascinating 
possibility of studying the growth of racial and national 
points of view, and the constantly readjusted needs of society 
for the subjects in the school. 

8. Still another benefit to be derived from the textbook is 
the possibility of determining administratively the various levels 
of school systems and the progress of pupils among these several 
systems by means of knowing exactly how much ground has 
been covered by the pupil. This record is also important in 
transfers from school to school. Transferred credits are based 
partly on the amount and quality of work done in certain 
textbooks. If these textbooks are not the same as those used 
elsewhere, it becomes necessary to make careful comparisons. 
Without such books it would be difficult also to accredit 



io Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

schools. As it now is, college entrants are accepted on the 
ground of a well-known prescribed kind of preparation, and 
the college work continues what has been done in the secondary 
school. This, of course, does not insure adequate preparation, 
for quantity of work (as represented in units) does not mean 
thoroughness, but the prescribed courses with recognized 
textbooks and other educational equipment provide a scheme 
of determining intellectual preparedness. 

The advantages of the textbook have been well stated by 
Dr. W. T. Harris : 1 

It has the advantage of making one independent of his teacher ; 
you can take your book wherever you please. You cannot do 
that with a great lecturer, neither can you question him as you 
can the book, nor can you select the time for hearing the great 
teacher talk as you can for reading the book. And it is true that 
nearly all the great teachers have embodied their ideas in books. 
The greatest danger of textbook education is verbatim, parrot-like 
recitation, but even here, from the poorest textbook, a great deal 
of knowledge can be gleaned. Then there is the alertness which 
in any large class will necessarily be engendered by an intelligent 
understanding and criticism of the results arrived at by different 
pupils in discussing a certain piece of work given in their own 
words. And then there is the advantage to be found in the fact 
that with the textbook the child can be busy by itself. 

A cursory glance over the situation in the United States 
assures one that the textbook is a remarkable factor in public 
school education, and nowhere so wonderfully developed as 
here. The American publishers are among the great educators 

1 Lectures on the Philosophy of Education, Johns Hopkins University Studies 
in Historical and Political Sciences. Supplementary notes. Eleventh series, 
1893, p. 272. 



Its Place in Modern Education n 

of the world. They are constantly on the lookout for new 
ideas in the classroom, and wherever they discover a teacher 
who is doing something of merit they enlist this teacher to 
prepare a description of method or of an organization of a 
course so that it will be available to all other educators. 
Publishers and teachers, with the help of expert book critics 
and technicians of book making, become in this way the sine 
qua non of public education. Without this means of organizing 
and preserving the newest ideas in education many blessings 
of genius and trained intellect would be unavailable for coming 
generations. 

Summary. The foregoing advantages in using the text- 
book indicate that not without reason has this field of public 
education reached its astonishing development. At present 
authors and publishers are seeking to incorporate what in- 
vestigators have found to be essential principles in effective 
learning. While it is true that teachers are greatly supple- 
menting the textbook by a large variety of materials and 
technic, it is equally true that their need of the book as part 
of their directive material has increased, for the books of 
merit to-day are numerous, and no one book can easily be 
selected for exclusive reference in a course. 

In the following pages an attempt is made to consider very 
briefly some of the principles that seem important in the dis- 
criminating use of the textbook. To the reflective teacher 
the discussion may suggest other ways in which texts can 
serve pupils and teachers. The alert instructor will employ 
procedures peculiarly adapted to his own groups of pupils. 
Some teachers will find it necessary to give greater attention 
to the substance of the book, while others may need to refer 
to the text as only one of many reference books. No one 



12 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

scheme of reorganization of textbook matter can be applied 
to all subjects or to any one subject. Here again the teacher's 
initiative and originality must be drawn upon. While we 
are waiting for the ideal book teachers can render valuable 
service by making the study of textbook construction part of 
their discussions at institutes and in reading circles ; and also 
the field of careful experimentation for the ascertaining of 
what arrangement of material will best serve the needs of 
school people engaged in the teaching and studying of the 
various subjects. 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. Do you notice in your school that there is any tendency to 
depend less heavily on the textbook than formerly ? 

2. If there is such a tendency what are the reasons for it ? Are 
these reasons sound? 

3. If you were planning a course on Textbook Making what 
topics would you include? 

4. In addition to the advantages of the textbook already named 
in the chapter, what others, growing out of your own experience, 
can you suggest? 

5. What additional disadvantages of the textbook have you 
found ? 

6. What conditions in American education seem to require a 
greater use of textbooks than in European countries? 

7. Which type of school system do you judge is the stronger — 
one using many texts in a course, or one using only one? Why? 

8. Did the ancient Greeks and Romans use many textbooks? 

9. How would you organize and administer a school system 
that used texts only occasionally? 

10. Have you referred to many of your old school books since 
graduation? Why? 



Its Place in Modern Education 13 

11. Among the advantages of the textbook which do you regard 
most important? Why? 

12. Which of the disadvantages of the textbook seem to you 
most serious ? Why ? 

REFERENCES 

Harris, W. T. Importance of the Textbook. Journal of Education, 

Vol. 80: 317; Oct. 8, 1914. 
Hart, A. B. Schoolbooks and International Prejudices, American 

Association for International Conciliation, 191 1. 
Rice, J. M. Substitution of the Teacher for the Textbook, N. E. A. 

Proceedings, 1895. pp. 562-70. 
Thurber, C. H. What about Textbooks'? Outlook. Vol. 105: 81-4; 

Sept. 13, 1913. 
Winshtp, A. E. Vitality and Virility of American Schoolbooks. Journal 

of Education, Vol. 82: 255-8; Sept. 23, 191 5. 



CHAPTER II 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TEXTBOOK 

The Need of a History of the Textbook. Within recent 
years many histories of education have been written from 
various points of view and with widely differing types of 
organization. One meets with disappointment, however, in 
the search for a history of the textbook. There are many 
and scattering references to schoolbooks throughout the his- 
tory of the development of educational systems and institu- 
tions. By inference one is satisfied that in the educational 
schemes of ancient Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, and Israel 
there were no individual texts available. The clay tablets 
of ancient Persia, small and numerous, may have served as 
convenient media of instruction, just as they were used for 
correspondence, military and commercial orders, receipts, 
etc. The papyrus rolls among the Egyptians were carefully 
guarded by the priests. In Greece and Rome it is unlikely 
that each pupil possessed a textbook of his own. The ex- 
pense and the time required to copy manuscripts would make 
their wider distribution prohibitive. 

Mediaeval Textbooks. Toward the end of the twelfth 
century individual manuscripts were not uncommon. Many 
small sized Bibles and prayer books were current. Manu- 
scripts with copious notations are now found in such museums 
as the Vatican, and those in Lisbon, in Paris, and in the ar- 

14 



A Brief History of the Textbook 15 

chives of many of the old monasteries. They witness to their 
having been used by students under some form of instruction. 
The ancient classics were used as foundational subject-matter, 
and there were, of course, numerous manuscripts of these 
ancient writings. Reference books in the form of theological 
and philosophical commentaries were also available. Con- 
densations of Aristotle's lectures were also used. Grammars 
as compendiums of definitions, classifications, and purely 
formal rules of speech were studied. Arithmetic and geometry 
and astronomy formed part of the seven liberal arts. 

The most popular books in mediaeval education were the 
following : 

Orosius, Historiarum adversus Paganos, Libri vn. 

Martianus Capella Nuptiae Mercuri et Philologiae. {Mar- 
riage of Mercury and Philology.) 

Donatus ars Grammatica. 

Boetius, Consolatio Philosophiae. 

Casiodorus, Be Arte et disciplina liberalium artium. 

Isodorus, Etymologiae. 

They were cumbersome depositories of Greek and Latin 
treatises. Museums of knowledge would be an accurate 
description of them. The contents had to be memorized. 
It should be remembered, however, that, although these books 
were extremely formal, Latin was the common means of com- 
munication among the people, especially in the church. The 
illustrations, concrete material, and inspiration to study were 
easily found in the everyday life of the students. The students 
lived in an atmosphere of Latin, a fact that may easily excuse 
the absence of vitalizing principles in the books themselves. 
To-day it is necessary to supply the textbook in Latin as well 
as in other subjects with vitalizing principles because the 



16 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

pupil does not seem to appreciate the fact that some of the 
school subjects are really very closely concerned with his 
daily living. 

Dr. Frank W. Smith 1 gives an interesting series of sum- 
maries of some of the mediaeval texts. Capella, for instance, 
presents the Seven Liberal Arts in a very fanciful manner. 
They are bridesmaids at the marriage of Mercury and 
Philology. Each in turn comes forward to present her 
art in due form and style. The genius of grammar is in- 
troduced in the following manner, which is typical of the 
others : 

Letos' son now brings in one of Mercury's attendants, old, 
but comely, once claiming descent from Osiris and birth at 
Memphis, long guarded in secret, but found and educated by 
Mercury. In Attica where she has lived most of her life, she 
wore the pallium, but enters the assembly of the gods now in Latin 
fashion, because of Latin environment and Latin auspices. 

She plays the role of doctor of language and carries strange 
concoctions of leech-craft for curing various defects of the vocal 
organs and faults of speech. Among the tools is a highly polished 
file with eight gilded sides (the traditional eight parts of speech). 
Capella says : As often as she received any one to be cured it was 
her custom to treat first of the Noun, the common errors and 
gender, then modes, tenses, and inflections of verbs. To cure the 
dull and slow she had them run the whole round labor hard at the 
whole art. 

The dramatic style of the book perhaps was intentionally 
selected so as to arouse interest. 

The Renaissance Textbooks. The textbooks of the Ren- 
aissance were in many respects similar to those of the 

1 The High School. Sturgis, Walton Co. ; 1916. 



A Brief History of the Textbook 17 

preceding age. But at this time many new books began to 
appear. The printing press made it possible to produce books 
more quickly and in larger quantities. Men like Sturm and 
Melancthon began to prepare suitable texts. They edited 
the classical authors, and Melancthon even wrote a physics 
as well as texts in other subjects. Books on chemistry, 
natural philosophy, natural history, geometry, geography, 
history, etc., now appeared, some in Latin, some in English. 
By the year 1700 they had reached large numbers. 

In the Constitutions Respecting Instructions of the Society 
of Jesus (1558), Loyola refers to textbooks in colleges and 
universities, but his directions are of interest to the student 
of this subject in all of its branches. He says : " as touching 
Latin and Greek books of humanity both in our Universities 
and Colleges, as far as possible, those shall not be used which 
contain anything prejudicial to good morals, except they 
have been previously purified of improper things or words." 
These directions carry out the spirit of Plato's and Aristotle's 
instructions regarding the reading of literature. 1 

Melancthon's textbooks deserve more than passing notice. 
He was not very well satisfied with his Greek Grammar, but 
at the insistence of his " bookseller " he " critically revised 
the whole altering and improving it." The Grammar is 
simple and clear, but does not include syntax. His Latin 
grammar was written originally for one of his pupils. It was 
published in 1525 against Melancthon's wishes. In the edition 
of 1542 he writes : " In the first edition of my grammar there 
were various omissions. These may be supplied, yet there 
should not be too many rules ; lest their number prove dis- 

1 For a good discussion of this whole subject see German Teachers and 
Educators by Barnard. Brown and Gross, Publishers; 1878. 
c 



1 8 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

couraging to the learner." He claims that knowledge of 
grammar is indispensable to the understanding of theology. 
He says further in the second part of the edition of 1550 of 
this grammar or syntax, that persons who expect to become 
philologists merely through the perusal of the classics cannot 
hope to succeed. They will never be rooted and grounded. 
" Their false view proceeds from a repugnance to the restraint 
of rules, — a repugnance that by and by will degenerate into a 
dangerous contempt of all law and order." 

The following comment by Schenck, who lectured on Latin 
grammar at Leipzic, bears witness to possibilities in textbook 
making that must be now a lost art, for surely no one would 
have the temerity to-day to review a book in Schenck's aban- 
don of opinion. " This little book," he says of Melancthon's 
grammar, " has now attained to that perfection that there 
appears to be nothing deficient in it, nor can there hereafter 
be anything added to it ; and accordingly it will ever continue 
to be, as it now is, the sum of all perfection, neither to be 
altered nor remodeled." * 

Michael Neander found, however, that the book was too 
profuse for elementary instruction. He accordingly reduced 
Camerarius' edition of Melancthon's grammar from five 
hundred seven pages to one hundred thirty. This text- 
book held chief place in the schools of Germany in the last 
half of the 16th century. Between 1525 and 1727 it passed 
through fifty-one editions, each more or less altered from 
the original. The book had large influence on grammatical 
instruction in Germany even up to the date of Barnard's 
volume (1878). 

Melancthon wrote also The Manual of Logic, designed to 
1 Barnard, op. cit., p. 173. 



A Brief History of the Textbook 19 

aid the student to understand Aristotle. He believed that 
logic was fundamental to the comprehension of the church 
doctrines, and proclaimed that " even as there are many men 
of unbridled passions who hate the restraints of moral law, 
so there are those who cannot abide the rules of art." He 
produced also a Manual of Rhetoric, which was intended as 
an elementary guide to the study of Cicero and Quintilian. 
His Manual of Physics was written in a pious style, and bears 
witness not only to much sound learning, but to belief in the 
superstitions of astrology. As early as 1 5 29 he wrote a Manual 
of Ethics and a Manual of History, the latter first written by 
one of his pupils but entirely rewritten by Melancthon in 

1538. 

The interest in classical literature, restrained during the 
long theological domination of individual taste, and revived 
by the Renaissance, flourished unhindered for a time. But 
love of the classical ideals of living and thinking soon changed 
to a slavish worship of classical form, and the resulting 
Ciceronianism became as formal as any of the disciplines of 
the schoolmen. Language became a tyrannical drill. Con- 
tent meant little, form was supreme. The spread of the study 
of the vernacular gradually resulted in the decline of Latin as 
a spoken language. This in turn led to the need of vitalizing 
grammar lest its traditional formalism prove too forbidding 
for a successful competition with the vernacular. The result 
was that abbreviated and simplified forms of the old grammars 
were written. They sought to be more interesting. Among 
these new texts appeared one that may be called a transition 
text, for it marks the first definite approach to the modern 
grammar. This was Robertson's edition of Lily, written 
entirely in Latin, 



20 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

The Orbis P ictus by Comenius appeared in 1685. It was 
destined to become the most popular textbook in Europe for 
a hundred years. Aside from the ABC primers this was 
the first illustrated schoolbook ever printed. It was, how- 
ever, little more than an illustrated dictionary, its style not 
being markedly attractive. 

Textbooks in Colonial America. Among the interesting 
exhibits at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco 
was a collection of old textbooks which, like old flags and 
swords and other relics of the battlefield, bore the marks of 
ancient struggle, much of it, no doubt, physical rather 
than intellectual. Between the textbooks of our American 
ancestors (not to speak in detail of the earlier specimens in 
Europe) and the beautifully bound and handsomely illus- 
trated modern schoolbook, lies a long history whose many 
pages would prove an interesting and suggestive record of 
how textbooks began, and how they have been evolved and 
vastly improved. Strictly speaking, the modern textbook 
is little more than three hundred years old. Only within the 
last seventy-five years has it become more adequately adapted 
to the laws of the learning process, and in several respects 
there are needs of a still better adaptation. 

Happily we have passed beyond the alphabet age, but in 
the early days learning the alphabet was the beginning of 
wisdom. Attempts at grading were purely arbitrary, letters 
preceding simple syllables and these in turn being followed by 
more difficult syllabification. The road to learning was 
cobbled with small and large letter combinations. The 
application of this preliminary instruction was made in 
the reading of religious material, some of it extremely lugu- 
brious. 



A Brief History of the Textbook 21 

For the convenience of the pupil, and doubtless also for 
reasons of economy, the earliest reading books were simply a 
single sheet attached to a small rectangular piece of wood 
with a handle. The modern handmirror illustrates the gen- 
eral form. Over the sheet was fastened a fairly transparent 
piece of horn. This " hornbook," as it was called, was 
suspended around the pupil's neck. To us the contents of 
this primitive textbook were very crude. The page began 
with a cross, the emblem of piety, and also a charm against 
hidden evils in the letters to follow. Then came four rows 
of the alphabet, two in small letters, and two in capitals. 
These were followed with three lines of syllables in two 
columns, at the top of each column appearing the vowels 
a, e, i, o, u. The left-hand column gave syllables like ab, 
eb, ib, etc., and the right-hand column, ba, be, bi, etc. In 
solemn blessing followed : In the Name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; " and the Lord's Prayer. 
The first of these hornbooks was printed in Latin about 1400. 
In the reign of Charles II they were bound in leather with a 
picture of the mounted King stamped on the back. 1 

After completing the hornbook the pupil began to study the 
Primer, also religious. In fact all the books used for instruc- 
tion in reading were religious up to 1750. These primers 
were usually copies of sectarian creeds and prayers. Martin 
Luther, for example, wrote a Child's Little Primer which 
contained the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the 
Creed, and a Catechism. Of special interest to the student of 

1 Interesting pictures of the hornbook and other early texts can be seen in 
The History of Modem Elementary Education, pp. 69-98, by S. C. Parker. 
Ginn and Co., 1912, and Old-time Schools and School Books by Clifton Johnson. 
Macmillan Co., 191 7. 



22 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

American education is the New England Primer, which was 
patterned after English models, the latter no doubt being 
directly influenced by Luther's. It doubtless was influenced 
also by the Orbis Pictus of Comenius (1658). The New 
England Primer appeared in 1690, its author being Benjamin 
Harris, an English bookseller. It was of small size, about 
three inches by four, and printed in hand-cut type with very 
irregular alignment. On the left of the page appear a 
column of indistinct illustrations and opposite them brief 
moralizings : 

In Adam's Fall 

We sinned all 

Thy Life to mend 
This Book attend 

The idle Fool 

Is whipt at School 

The first part of the Primer contains religious admonitions 
followed by the alphabet and syllables and lists of words 
for spelling. The letters are arranged in groups of one, two, 
three, four, five, and six syllables. Then appears the picture 
alphabet with rimes, as quoted above. Verses for children 
with references to death, hell, and God's wrath come next. 
There are quotations from the Proverbs, The Lord's Prayer, 
Creed, Commandments ; and names of the Biblical books are 
also included. The little book with its eighty pages con- 
cludes with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. 

The catechism with its condensed theology was regarded 
as the most important part of the Primer, and to a people who 
firmly believed that children were " young vipers and in- 
finitely more hateful than vipers to God " it was of course 



A Brief History of the Textbook 23 

tremendously important that early and strenuous measures 
should be taken to save them from the wrath to come. Doubt- 
less there are teachers to-day who think the early estimate of 
school children quite correct. The New England Primer 
was the best seller of its day. It had a vogue in England and 
Scotland as well as in America, and up to 1849 ft nas been 
estimated that more than three millions of copies had been 
sold. There were other primers, such as The Evangelical 
Primer, similar in content, but much less popular. 

Only a few books available. In the schools of the early 
colonies books were necessarily few. A catechism or a 
primer, a psalter, and a testament or Bible comprised the list 
for the average boy. Pupils in Latin had additional texts. 
In the beginning it was only natural that almost all of the books 
were the products of foreign authors. Johnson believes that 
the only schoolbook of American origin before the Revolution 
was a little Latin grammar by Ezekiel Cheever, known as 
Cheever's Accidence (1645). It passed through many editions, 
the last appearing as late as 1838. Lily's Grammar, with 
twenty-five kinds of nouns, seven genders, etc., was studied 
after the pupil had mastered Cheever's Accidence. Among 
other books in common use were ^Esop, Eutropius, and The 
Colloquies of Corderius for the younger pupils ; and for the 
older boys Caesar, Ovid, Virgil, and Cicero were commonly 
used. 

The religious character of early American schools. The 
ministers were the official supervisors of the public schools 
in the colonies. The ministers were also town officers. They 
were expected not only to exhort but to give the ' people 
religious instruction, and of course the children would form 
a large part of the charge of every minister. The children 



24 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

were examined in the catechism, in their knowledge of the 
Bible, and sometimes in their understanding of the minister's 
sermons. In 1710, by a Boston enactment, ministers were 
expected on their school visits to pray with the pupils and to 
" entertain them with some instructions of piety especially 
adapted to their age and education." The rural minister was 
often called upon to teach, especially Latin, in towns that had 
no grammar pupils. And many of them boarded several 
pupils as well as taught them. 1 This sort of supervision 
and close interest on the part of the church tended to make 
education strongly religious in character, and one finds this 
influence widely represented in the early textbooks. 

Early Spelling Books. Efforts to break away from the 
stern and narrow religious conception of education appeared 
in the form of " spelling books." These, however, were not 
wholly or even predominantly secular, at first. The title 
of one of the earliest of these spelling books indicates the wider 
point of view : The English Scholemaister, teaching all his 
schollars of what age so ever the most easie, short, and perfect 
order of distinct readings and true writings our English tongue 
that hath ever yet been known or published by any. The con- 
tents were apportioned as follows : alphabet and spelling, 3 2 
pages ; a short catechism, 18 pages ; chronology, 5 pages ; 
writing copy, 2 pages ; arithmetic, 2 pages ; the remainder 
of the book being made up of word lists for spelling. It was 
a thin book of seventy-two pages, published by Coote in 1596. 
Much of it was printed in Old English black letter. 

The most popular of the spellers was Dilworth's New Guide 
to the English Tongue, published in 1740, and in general use 
until shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century. One 
1 See Johnson, Old-Time Schools and School Books, p. 24. 



A Brief History of the Textbook 25 

of the handsomest of the spellers was Watt's Compleat Spelling 
Book (1770). Reference should also be made to Nathaniel 
Strong's England's Perfect School-Master (1676). 

That all of the books for children were not formal and 
pious in those early days is shown in the preface to The History 
of Genesis (1708) which was written to keep children from 
reading Tom Thumb, Guy of Warwick, or " some such foolish 
book." The parents are exhorted not to let their children 
read " these vain Books, profane Ballads, and filthy songs. 
Throw away all fond and amorous Romances, and fabulous 
Histories of Giants, the bombast achievements of Knight 
Errantry, and the like ; for these fill the Heads of Children 
with vain silly and idle imaginations." 

The Child's Weeks Work or A Little Book so nicely suited 
to the Genius and Capacity of a Little Child Both for Matter 
and Method that it will infallibly Allure and Lead him on into 
a way of Reading with all Ease and Expedition that can be 
desired, was written by William Ronkfley (17 12). The 
Protestant Tutor was another English text of the early days. 
Only a few of these books reached the American colonies and 
not at all in any quantities. 

A glance through the history of American spelling books 
reveals some striking facts. On account of the war with 
England it was difficult to get schoolbooks from abroad. A 
young teacher, only twenty-four years old, in charge of a 
school in Orange County, New York, seized the opportunity 
and compiled a spelling book, which was printed in Hartford 
in 1783. It formed the first part of a Grammatical Institute 
of the English Language and was known as The American 
Spelling Book and more popularly as The Blue Back Speller. 
The author, Noah Webster, received royalties from its sale to 



26 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

such an extent that his family was comfortably supported by 
this book for twenty years, although Webster received only one 
cent a copy as royalty. When he was eighty -four the sale of 
the spelling book had reached twenty-four million copies. 

A little later in Boston (1805) The Child's Companion by 
Caleb Bingham became an active competitor for popular 
favor. Its contents were similar to the other spellers, in- 
cluding moralizings, fables, and a list of " Improprieties in 
Pronunciation." In 1798 a Hartford printer compiled The 
Child's Spelling Book. It contains many pictures and enter- 
taining subject-matter. Caleb Alexander's The Young 
Ladies' and Gentleman's Spelling Book was published in 1799. 
It showed much improvement in binding, in illustrations, and 
in general arrangement. A series of poems by Isaac Watts, 
then very popular, forms the striking feature of the book. 
In the same year (1799) The Columbian Spelling Book 
appeared, but its general make-up showed much crudity. 
Another speller with a similar title, The Columbian Primer, 
was offered by H. Mann, of Dedham, in 1802. Its arrangement 
of material in the form of rimes and interesting pictures 
made it quite popular. There must have been something 
hypnotic about the title of these books for in 1827 another 
Columbian Primer was placed on the market in New York. 
The most noticeable change in the latter was the printing 
of two cuts to a page where the Dedham Primer had used 
only one. 

Contents of Early Spellers. In Fiske's New England 
Spelling Book (1803) there is a page devoted to " Words 
frequently used in speaking and writing which should be well- 
learned by every scholar." In the list, among many others, 
are Damn (capitalized), dirge, and gaol (!). Johnson cites 



A Brief History of the Textbook 27 

from the preface of a speller in 1828 that the early books 
" contain words collected from all departments of nature, 
life, and action; from the nursery, the kitchen, the dressing 
room, the stable, the barroom, the gaming table, the seaman's 
wharf, the apothecary's shop, from the subtle pages of the 
metaphysician and the rhapsodies of the pompous pedant." 
It is not difficult to see whence came the tendency that has 
prevailed in spelling books until quite recently. 

Comfy 's A New Spelling Book, Philadelphia (1806) ; 
Perry's The Only Sure Guide to the English Tongue (1798) ; 
Joshua Bradley's Lessons in Spellings, Windsor, Vermont 
(181 5) ; John Franklin Jones's Analytical Speller, New York 
(1823) ; Bolles's Spelling Book, New London (183 1) ; The 
Young Tyro's Instructor, New York (1834) ; Parson's 
Analytical Spelling Book, Portland, Maine (1836) ; Exercises 
in Orthography, Providence, R. I. (1826) ; and Companion to 
Spelling Books (1843), are among the most prominent of 
the spellers that influenced the contents of earlier schooling 
in the subjects of spelling, reading, and general morals. 

Readers. Forming the third part of Webster's Institutes 
was the first American reader, published in 1785. Before 
this time there were no readers in the technical sense of 
the word. The Bible and various kinds of homilies served 
as bases of instruction in reading. Webster, however, 
reached a commendable achievement in his book. The 
reader contains tales of revolutionary heroes, Indian wars, 
and also ancient stories. Poetry and dramatic dialogues 
form a considerable section of the book. Strictly speaking 
it is more of a guide to declamation than a reader, but its 
great advance beyond anything of its kind in those days gives 
it high merit. 



28 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Webster, however, did not get many royalties from this 
publication. A strong competitor, in the person of Caleb 
Bingham, published the American Preceptor, which by 1832 
had reached a sale of 640,000 copies. Webster's book is made 
up of three parts — " Narration," " Lessons in Speaking," 
and " Dialogues." His other reader, The Little Reader's 
Assistant (1790), was a rather lugubrious and harrowing series 
of selections. Bingham's Columbian Orator also became 
popular. 

An English Reader by Lindley Murray was another of the 
readers that made a large place for itself. Abraham Lincoln 
regarded this as the best schoolbook ever put into the 
hands of an American youth. In 1823 John Pierpont pub- 
lished The American First Class Book. It contains many ex- 
cellent principles of textbook making, which indeed could be 
accepted to-day with no little profit. Selections from such 
contemporaries as Scott, Irving, Channing, Bryant, and 
Wordsworth form the bulk of the material. Humor and 
sentiment are included. 

Before 1825 there were only a few readers available for 
beginners. Johnson believes that the first was The Franklin 
Primer (1802). It contained a variety of tables, moral lessons, 
and sentences, a concise history of the world, hymns, and 
catechisms. Stamford's The Art of Reading, Boston (1807) ; 
The Mental Flower Garden, New York (1808) ; Strong's The 
Common Reader (18 18) ; The Child's Instructor (1808) ; 
The Child's Instructor and Moral Primer, Portland, Maine 
(1822), were among the early publications in this field. 
Leavitt says in his Easy Lessons (1823) that there was con- 
siderable need of elementary readers, and this fact accounts 
for the numerous reading books that now began to appear. 



A Brief History of the Textbook 29 

The Fourth Class Book, Brookfield, Mass. (1827), and the 
Clinton Primer (1830) were attractive attempts to meet the 
demand. A second Book for Reading and Spelling, Boston 
(1830) ; Gallaudet's The Child's Picture Defining and Reading 
Book, Hartford (1830), sought to present a variety of reading 
matter with illustrations that aimed to arouse interest and to 
instruct at the same time. Gallaudet's illustrations are superior 
to those of his competitors' books. The Union Primer (1832) 
has some strange lessons in morals. The Child's Guide, Spring- 
field, Mass. (1833), contains some keen lessons in observation 
and interpretation of nature. Pierpont's The Young Reader 
(1835) ; Lovell's Young Pupil's Second Book, New Haven 
(1836) ; The American Juvenile Primer (1838) ; Mandeville's 
Primary Reader, New York (1849), are interesting to the student 
of this subject. In fact the selections in most of the earlier 
readers deserve approval and in some instances emulation. 

Besides the foregoing, The General Class-Book, Greenfield, 
Mass. (1828) ; Comstock's Rhythmical Reader, Philadelphia 
(1832) ; The Christian Reader (1832) ; The Farmer's School 
Book, Albany (1837) ; The Monitorial Reader, Concord, N. H. 
(1839), and Lovell's Young Speaker, New Haven (1844), 
were in popular use. 

Grammars. Grammars began to appear in 1580 and 1594 
when Bullaker and Greenwood respectively published, the 
former his English Grammar and the latter his grammar 
written in Latin. Webster's Institute — Part II was the 
Grammatical Institute of the English Language. Caleb Bing- 
ham's Young Lady's Accidence: designed for the use of Young 
Learners, more especially for those of the Fair Sex, though 
proper for either, and Lindley Murray's English Grammar 
were in turn followed by an enterprising publication in 



30 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

1829, called The Little Grammarian. In this book gram- 
matical terms are explained pictorially in a way that might 
well be imitated in modern schools. For example, the 
active voice is represented by a teacher with upraised birch 
(hardly an apt illustration in the modern school) ; the passive 
voice by the cowering pupil about to be acted upon; and 
the neuter by a child seated on a chair near by and in an 
apprehensive posture. 

Arithmetics. Passing to textbooks in arithmetic, we find 
that these were uncommon among the early colonists. English 
texts were used before 1788, the first of these being Record's, 
published in 1540. The Dutch colonists, with their success 
in commerce at home, believed in emphasizing the study of 
arithmetic, and one of their regulations regarding the school 
teacher was that "he is to instruct the youth in reading, 
writing, cyphering, and arithmetic, with all zeal and diligence. " 
This subject, however, was not taught regularly throughout 
the colonies. In the villages especially it was neglected. 
The Puritans, in their orders of 1642, 1647, and 1650, make no 
mention of arithmetic. Governor Bradford's Journal of 1645, 
however, refers to the fact that arithmetic was taught in the 
so-called " free-school " of Boston. There seems to be evi- 
dence that the dominant interest of the Puritans in religion 
crowded out arithmetic after the first few years of its exist- 
ence. It was taught in private schools in and after 171 2. 
In Dedham and in Plymouth, Mass., and in the colony of 
Pennsylvania there was provision made for arithmetic, if not 
in actual orders, at least in actual practice. Delaware and 
New Jersey probably gave attention to this subject as a 
means of education. In the southern colonies the several 
legislatures gave it a place in their school acts. 



A Brief History of the Textbook 31 

In the colonies the first arithmetic was Greenwood's, with the 
quaint title, Arithmetick, Vulgar and Decimal with the Applica- 
tion thereof to a Variety of Cases in Trade and Commerce 
(1729). It was taught from a manuscript from which the 
teacher dictated to the pupils, who in turn wrote the examples 
in their " sumbooks." The first purely arithmetical work 
in the United States was an edition of Hodder's Arithmetic, 
Boston (17 19). A better known book is the one written by 
Nicholas Pike and published about 1788. It was commended 
by George Washington. Many of the examples dealt with 
contemporaneous history, as for example, " General Washing- 
ton was born in 1732; what was his age in 1787? " How 
many teachers to-day understand the following rule in Pike's 
Arithmetic? " To find the tare and tret deduct the tare 
and tret and divide the suttle by 168, and the quotient will 
be the doff, which subtract from the suttle and the remainder 
will be the neat." 1 The book contains 512 pages, of which 
4 deal with " plain " geometry, 11 with " plain " trigonometry, 
45 with mensuration of superficies and solids, ^>2> wltn an 
introduction to algebra, designed for the use of academies, 
and 10 with an introduction to conic sections. It is laden 
with rules. 

An Introduction to Arithmetic by Erastus Root, Norwich, 
Conn. (1796), was widely used for a time. It omits fractions 
"because they are not absolutely necessary." The arithmetic 
by Daniel Adams (1801) was a keen rival of the Pike text. 
Nathan Daboll's Schoolmaster's Assistant (1799) ; Walsh's 

1 Tare means weight of a receptacle apart from its contents ; tret means 
allowance for waste due to transportation ; suttle means taken after the tare 
has been deducted and before the tret has been allowed; cloff means any 
small deduction of weight ; neat, net. 



32 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

Mercantile Arithmetic, Northampton, Mass. (1800, revised 
in 1807 and 1826) ; Thompson's The American Tutor's 
Guide, Albany (1808) ; The Science of Numbers Made Easy 
by Leonard Loomis, Hartford (18 16) ; The Scholar's Arith- 
metic by Jacob Willetts, Poughkeepsie, New York (181 7), of 
which fifty editions were printed in a few years, were also in 
fairly general use. The large volume by Beriah Stevens 
"containing Vulgar, Decimal and Logarithmetical Arith- 
metick," Saratoga Springs (1822), was a rather formidable 
treatise. 

Characteristics of early arithmetics. A general characteristic 
of these earlier arithmetics was their emphasis on ciphering ; 
but with the publication of Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic 
(182 1) a new approach was begun. More than two million 
copies of this book were sold within the next fifty years. It 
stresses oral exercises and practical problems. Franklin's 
Arithmetic, Springfield, Mass. (1832), followed Colburn, but 
besides its purpose to teach numbers it sought to develop 
moral attitudes toward creation. Barnard's Arithmetic^ 
Hartford (1830), was perhaps the first to use pictures. In 
1838 Emerson's The North American Arithmetic, Part First , 
appeared with many illustrations. UnderhilPs New Table- 
Book (1846) had several quaint jingles expressing problems. 

Before 1800 at least twenty arithmetics by American authors 
were on the market. Among these, besides some of those already 
mentioned, were the following: Benjamin Dearborn (1782), 
Alexander McDonald (1785), Thomas Sarjent (1788), Consider and 
John Sterry (1790), John Vinall (1792), Benjamin Workman (1793), 
Joseph Chaplin (1795), Daniel Flemining (1795), Erastus Root 
(1796), James Noyes (1797), Chauncey Lee (1797), William Milns 
(1797), David Kendall (1797), Peter Sharp (1798), Zachariah 



A Brief History of the Textbook 33 

Jess (1798), Ezekiel Little (1799), Nathan Daboll (1799), and 
David Cook (1800). 

It is not surprising that the aim of these early texts and 
consequently their selection of material stressed the commercial 
side of colonial life. Arithmetic was very largely a vocational 
subject with a people whose livelihood was obtained chiefly 
by trade. The titles of some of the books already referred to 
indicate the general purpose quite clearly. Daboll says in 
the preface of his Schoolmaster 's Assistant: " The design of 
this work is to furnish the schools of the United States with a 
methodical and comprehensive system of practical arithmetic. " 

But while this aim was natural it does seem strange that so 
little emphasis was laid on making arithmetic automatic. 
Dilworth's text, for instance, contains only nine examples 
for drill in addition, and only nine in subtraction. In the 408 
pages of Pike's book there are only nine examples of drill in 
addition, and the same number in subtraction. Adams gives 
ten drill examples in addition, and nine in subtraction. 

The following quotation * indicates that even this meager 
amount of drill in the texts was not used in class. 

No boy had a printed arithmetic, but every other day a sum or 
two was set in each manuscript, to be ciphered on the slate, shown 
up, and if right, copied into the manuscript. Two sums were all 
that were allowed in subtraction, and this number was probably 
as many as the good man could set for each boy. This ciphering 
occupied two hours, or rather consumed two, and the other hour 
was employed in writing one page in a copy book. Once, when 
I had done my two sums in subtraction, and set them in my book, 

1 William B. Fowle, The Teacher's Institute or Familiar Hints to Young 
Teachers, p. 61 ; and Walter S. Monroe, Development of Arithmetic as a School 
Subject, U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin, 1917; No. 10, p. 16. 

D 



34 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

and been idle an hour, I ventured to go to the master's desk and 
ask him to be so good as to set me another sum. His amazement 
at my audacity was equal to that of the almshouse steward when the 
half-starved Oliver Twist " asked for more." He looked at me, 
twisted my manuscript toward him, and said, gutturally: "Eh, 
you gnarly wretch, you are never satisfied." I had never made 
such a request before, nor did I ever make another afterwards. 

Algebra was not generally taught, but the subject had been 
introduced. John Bonnycastle in his Introduction to Algebra, 
published in 1806, gives this illuminating problem : 

A man and his wife usually drank out a cask of beer in twelve 
days; but when the man was from home, it lasted the woman 
thirty days ; how many days would the man alone be in drinking 
it? 

Geography was not taught in the elementary schools 
before the Revolution. In the more advanced schools some 
rudimentary instruction was given in this subject. At first 
geography was used as reading material, but slowly it won an 
independent place. Before 181 5 two geographies by Jedidiah 
Morse (1784) and Nathaniel Dwight (1795), respectively, had 
appeared. An excellent description of these books is given in 
Johnson's Old-Time Schools and School-Books. Maps were 
scarce, Morse giving two and Dwight none at all. The 
Monitor's Instructor, published at Wilmington, Delaware, 
appeared in 1804. Later, in 1829, appeared Peter Parley's 
Child's Own Book of American Geography. It abandons the 
usual order beginning with elementary astronomy and ending 
with a study of cities. Instead, it takes the young pupil on a 
sight-seeing trip through America. There are many ques- 
tions, elaborate pictures, and rather good maps. The book 



A Brief History of the Textbook 35 

was more entertaining than accurate, however. A little earlier 
than this Benjamin Davies published a geography (1813) ; 
Cumming one in 18 14; Willard one in 1826; Adams one in 
1818. Worcester published his Elements of Geography in 
1828, and Woodbridge his Rudiments of Geography in 1829. 
Olney's A Practical System of Modern Geography was published 
in 1 83 1, and in the same year The Malte-Brun School Geog- 
raphy was placed on the market. All of these early books 
used the octavo size, but in 1845 Peter Parley's National 
Geography appeared in the familiar flat quarto shape. In 1850 
A System of Modern Geography was written by Mitchell. 

Languages. A glance at the textbooks in language ought 
to make us devoutly thankful that we did not live in those 
gloomy days. The schools of to-day, however, have not 
altogether passed from under the shadow of the type of 
grammars used in the Middle Ages. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew 
were the only languages taught in the colonies. Harvard's 
entrance requirements at the time included the following 
ultimatum : " Whoever shall be able to read Tully or any 
other such-like Latin author at sight, and correctly, and 
without assistance to speak and write Latin both in prose and 
verse, and to inflect exactly the paradigms of Greek nouns 
and verbs, has a right to expect to be admitted into college, 
and no one may claim admission without these qualifica- 
tions." 

Studying began with a simple Accidence; then came the 
grammar, which was memorized in toto. This was followed 
with Colloquies by Corderius or Orbis Pictus by Comenius. 

The most widely known Latin grammar of the day was 
Lily's. This was superseded by Cheever's Latin Accidence, 
first appearing in Boston in 1709, and last printed in 1838. 



36 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

History. Before 182 1 no satisfactory history of the United 
States had appeared. The following year (1822) C. A. Good- 
rich published A History of the United States. It had a large 
sale for a dozen years. In many respects it was an excellent 
piece of work. Noah Webster produced a school History of 
the United States in 1832. Similar works were written by 
Hale, and Taylor (1830), and Peter Parley. Butler's Sketches 
of Universal History was in use in 18 18. It regarded history 
from the religious point of view. Frost published a history 
in 1837, Whelping a Compendium of History in 1825. 

General Criticism of Early American Schoolbooks. The 
foregoing brief survey of the development of textbooks in this 
country indicates that many of the subjects which to-day 
occupy a very prominent place in the program did not at first 
find favor among educators; arithmetic and geography, for 
examples. The early primers had a distinctly religious tone. 
When we recall that education was in the hands of the church, 
and that at first priests and ministers of the gospel were practi- 
cally the only persons of any learning in the community, it is 
not surprising that church and school should have been estab- 
lished together. Gradually, however, the fields of the two 
institutions began to diverge, and with the separation came 
textbooks more secular and comprehensive. 

Judged by modern standards none of those texts conformed 
to the needs of the pupil, or to the conditions of hygienic 
study. They were miserably printed, the paper was of very 
poor quality, and the organization of the subject-matter, in 
the main, loose and illogical. To some extent, however, 
psychological principles were recognized in the provision for 
illustrations. Some of the problems in mathematics con- 
cerned the needs of the community. There were many de- 



A Brief History of the Textbook 37 

tailed questions which served as a guide to a thoroughgoing 
drill and review. But the requirement of excessive memoriz- 
ing was too relentless. This defect has not been entirely 
overcome even to-day. 

Another point worthy of notice is this, that in the early 
schools each pupil brought his own textbook which may or 
may not have been like the others in the class. Each pupil 
was taught from his own book. Uniformity was obtained 
later through district meetings, and still later, trustees or 
directors, and, in some states, the teachers were ordered to 
select the schoolbooks. Boards of Education, represented by 
the superintendent, usually do the work in towns and cities 
to-day. 

The following citation from a letter written by Noah 
Webster to Dr. Barnard in 1840 1 throws some interesting 
light upon conditions in the early American public school. 

When I was young, the books used were chiefly or wholly Dil- 
worth's Spelling books, the Psalter, Testament, and Bible. No 
geography was studied before the publication of Dr. Morse's small 
books on that subject, about the year 1786 or 1787. No history 
was read, as far as my knowledge extends, for there was no abridged 
history of the United States. Except the books above mentioned, 
no book for reading was used before the publication of the Third 
Part of my Institute, in 1785. In some of the early editions of that 
book, I introduced short stories of the geography and history of the 
United States, and these led to more enlarged descriptions of the 
country. In 1788, at the request of Dr. Morse, I wrote an account 
of the transactions in the United States, after the Revolution; 
which account fills nearly twenty pages in the first volume of his 
octavo editions. 

1 American Journal of Education, Vol. 13, 1865, pp. 123-24. 



38 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Before the Revolution, and for some years after, no slates were 
used in common schools : all writing and the operations in arith- 
metic were on paper. The teacher wrote the copies and gave the 
sums in arithmetic ; few or none of the pupils having any books as 
a guide. Such was the condition of the schools in which I received 
my early education. 

The introduction of my Spelling Book, first published in 1783, 
produced great change in the department of spelling; and, from 
the information I can gain, spelling was taught with more care and 
accuracy for twenty years or more after that period, than it has 
been since the introduction of multiplied books and studies. 
(The general use of my Spelling Book in the United States has had 
a most extensive effect in correcting the pronunciation of words, 
and giving uniformity to the language. Of this change, the present 
generation can have a very imperfect idea.) 

No English grammar was generally taught in common schools 
when I was young, except that in Dilworth, and that to no good 
purpose. In short, the instruction in schools was very imperfect, 
in every branch ; and if I am not mistaken it is so to this day, in 
many branches. Indeed there is danger of running from one ex- 
treme to another, and instead of having too few books in our schools 
we shall have too many. 

The following quotation in an essay by Noah Webster " On 
the Education of Youth in America " and published in a New 
York paper in 1788 is not entirely apropos of the present discus- 
sion but it is so illuminating and prophetic that its introduction 
here may be pardonable. Discussing the defects in American 
education at the time (before and during 1788) he writes: 

The first error that I would mention is a too general attention 

to the dead languages, with a neglect of our own This 

neglect is so general that there is scarcely an institution to be 
found in the country where the English tongue is taught regularly 



A Brief History of the Textbook 39 

from its elements to its pure and regular construction in prose and 
verse. Perhaps in most schools boys are taught the definition of 
the parts of speech, and a few hard names which they do not 
understand, and which the teacher seldom attempts to explain: 
this is called learning grammar. ... The principles of any 
science afford pleasure to the student who comprehends them. In 
order to render the study of language agreeable, the distinctions 
between words should be illustrated by the difference in visible 
objects. Examples should be presented to the senses which are 
the inlets of all our knowledge. 

Another error which is frequent in America, is that a master 
undertakes to teach many different branches in the same school. 
In new settlements where the people are poor, and live in scattered 
situations, the practice is often unavoidable. But in populous 
towns it must be considered as a defective plan of education. For 
suppose the teacher to be equally master of all the branches which 
he attempts to teach, which seldom happens, yet his attention 
must be distracted with a multiplicity of objects, and consequently 
painful to himself and not useful to his pupils. Add to this the 
continual interruptions which the students of one branch suffer 
from those of another, which must retard the progress of the whole 
school. It is a much more eligible plan to appropriate an apartment 
to each branch of education, with a teacher who makes that branch 
his sole enjoyment. 1 

The Rapid Increase of Textbooks. It is noticeable that 
gradually the text has found a central place in the American 
school system. The structure and contents of the textbook 
have changed to conform to the needs of the successive periods 
of social development. If the age requires religious reflection 
and theological programs of study, the school and its equipment 
must represent this spirit of the times. If society finds 

1 Barnard's American Journal of Education, Volume 13 ; 124-25. 



40 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

freedom of thought and investigation best for its welfare; 
if invention makes possible broader knowledge and less rigid 
adherence to present modes of living, the school will reflect 
this social attitude, and school equipment will be con- 
structed to train the young citizen for this type of civilization. 
Most of the teaching to-day revolves around the text- 
book. This may be regarded as distinctly an American 
practice. In Germany there are no texts in some subjects. 
In others there are only very brief texts which are abstracts 
or outlines to be amplified by the teacher. When used they 
are referred to for review purposes. 

Neither the extremely American nor the extremely German 
practice is to be recommended. Important as the textbook 
is, its function is limited. The educative process needs to 
go beyond any one or any group of texts. This extension of 
method is so current to-day that little needs to be said about 
it here. On the other hand, the textbook cannot be wholly 
ignored. Wherever the instructor has begun his work, aiming 
to avoid all texts, he has soon found it necessary to guide the 
learner by means of a well-organized presentation of the funda- 
mentals of the course. This is true especially in the abstract 
subjects, but the need is felt in laboratory courses as well. 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. What vehicles for imparting knowledge were used in ancient 
systems of education? 

2. What are the more prominent features of the texts used in 
mediaeval education? 

3. Who were some of the leading textbook writers of the Renais- 
sance? What were the characteristics of their textbooks? On 
what subjects were texts written? 



A Brief History of the Textbook 41 

4. How would you describe the early textbooks in American 
education? Why was the religious influence so strong in the 
beginning ? 

5. Interesting problems for study would be an analysis and 
comparison of the early and more recent spellers. What changes 
in these books have been introduced ? Is it true that children spell 
more poorly to-day than in the early years of American education ? 
If so, is this fact due to the spellers used ? 

6. When did grammar begin to appear as a school subject in 
America? When did grammars begin to appear in America? 

7. When was arithmetic introduced into the American schools? 
What were the outstanding characteristics of colonial arithmetic 
texts? Was drill in arithmetic generally given? 

8. Trace the origin and development of geography and history 
in the American public school. What topics were stressed at first ? 
What fundamental changes have taken place in the organization 
of these subjects to-day? 

9. What languages were studied in the early American schools ? 
Why? 

10. What do you conclude from Noah Webster's comments on 
the schools he attended? 

REFERENCES 

Bailey, L. H. Development of Textbooks of Agriculture in North America. 

Barnard, Henry. "Schools as They Were Sixty Years Ago." Ameri- 
can Journal of Education, Vol. 13; 1865, pp. 123-44. 

Bouchet. The Printed Book; its history, illustration, and adornment, 
from the days of Gutenberg to the present time. Translated and en- 
larged by Bigemore, London ; 1887. 

Clodd, Edward. Story of the Alphabet. Appleton ; 1900. 

Ford, P. L. The New England Primer. Dodd, Mead ; 1897. 

Greenwood, J. M., and Martin, A. Notes on the History of American 
Textbooks on Arithmetic. U. S. Commissioner of Educ. Report; 
1897-98, pp. 789-869. 



42 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Hazlitt, W. C. Schools, Schoolbooks and Schoolmasters. 2d Ed. 
Stechert; 1905. 

Johnson, Clifton. Old-Time Schools and School Books. Macmillan ; 
1917. 

Monroe, Paul. Principles of Secondary Education. Macmillan ; 19 14. 

Monroe, W. S. Development of Arithmetic as a School Subject. U. S. 
Bureau of Educ. Bulletin No. 10; 191 7. 

Odell, A. G. "Educational Tools, New and Old." Journal of Educa- 
tion, 80 : 623^-5 ; Dec. 24, 1914. 

Parker, S. C. History of Modern Elementary Education. Ginn; 191 2. 
Ch. IV. 

Plomer, H. R. Short History of English Printing. London ; 1900. 

Strong, H. A. Old Textbooks. Westminster, Vol. 179: 680-84; June, 

1013- 
Taylor, Isaac. The Alphabet. Vols. 1 and 2. Edward Arnold. 
Weeks, L. B. Confederate Textbooks. U. S. Bureau of Educ. ; 1900. 1 
Young, J. W. A. In Hoffman's Zeitschrift XXIX ; Jahrg. 1898, p. 410 f . 

See Zur mathematischen Lehrbiicherfrage. An interesting set of 

statistics on German textbooks. 
The early volumes of Barnard's American Journal of Education, 
beginning with Vol. 13, 1863, contain interesting catalogues of old and 
contemporaneous textbooks. 



CHAPTER III 

THE TEXTBOOK — ITS MEANING AND METHODS OF 

SUPPLY 

In the brief survey of the history of the textbook it was 
noted that in the beginning of school education few kinds of 
textbooks were available, and then only in very limited 
quantities, the pupil not having any save as he made his own 
from dictation. In the Middle Ages the texts were very largely 
edited editions of the old classics. A few more distinctly or- 
ganized texts began to appear, especially in Latin grammar. 
In the American colonies the primers were at first dominated 
by the religious point of view. Later instructional books in 
other branches arose, until the textbook as a class by itself 
assumed a permanent place. 

The Textbook Defined. Quite recently the question has 
been raised as to the exact meaning of the term textbook. Is 
any book used for classroom or study purposes a textbook, 
or does the meaning imply that the book has been organized 
for instructional purposes alone? Shakespeare's plays, for 
example, are literature, but when edited with notes, excerpts, 
suggestions for study, etc., do they not then become essen- 
tially textbooks in literature? The question is important to 
the extent that it affects methods of teaching. 

A few years ago a lengthy controversy arose regarding the 
exact meaning of textbook, commercially. The Tariff Act of 

43 



44 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

1913 provides for the free entry of all textbooks, but books 
not especially provided for carry a customs rate of 15 per 
cent ad valorem. Everyman's Library (the books that pro- 
voked the controversy) was classified by the publishers as text- 
books inasmuch as many of the volumes were used in the 
public schools for instructional purposes. The Board of Ap- 
praisers and the Customs Court finally decided that this 
series does not fall within the classification of textbooks. 

Any book may be used for instructional purposes within 
certain limitations, but this hardly entitles it to a place among 
textbooks which have been organized for sequential and in- 
tensive study under a formal organization. In fact, the 
proper organization of material is one of the fundamental 
factors in a sound textbook. By the aid of its arrangement 
of subject-matter both teacher and pupil may proceed psy- 
chologically and logically in the pursuit of a study. The 
point is obvious enough, but one finds in many instances that 
books, otherwise valuable, have been introduced as texts 
when they are wholly unsuitable for this purpose. This is 
perhaps more true in literature and history than in other 
subjects. Doubtless the most important of all questions con- 
cerning the textbook is its organization of subject-matter. This 
gives character and educational significance to the book. The 
textbook must be a well-systematized arrangement of a subject 
so that its formal study may proceed in an orderly sequence. 

Kinds of Textbooks. Various classifications of textbooks 
have been made. Dr. W. C. Bagley offers the following list : 
readers ; manuals or handbooks, such as arithmetic and 
grammar texts ; textbooks proper, such as geographies, his- 
tories, physiologies, etc. The wider scope of methods, how- 
ever, requires a more comprehensive classification. 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 45 

The following is suggested : 

1. Primers and readers. 

2. Manuals or handbooks. 

3. Textbooks proper. 

4. General literature when especially organized by author 
or teacher for study purposes. 

5. Periodical literature when treated educationally. 

6. Lecture notes, syllabi, and manuscripts. 

7. Sunday School quarterlies, Lesson Leaves and Bible 
Study notes, such as Peloubet's or the series written by 
Martha Tarbell. 

Magazines. The sixth group in this list finds little place 
in the public school but it occupies a prominent (perhaps a 
too important) place in college and university instruction. 
Of the fifth group much could be written. Its inclusion in 
the public school marks one of the notable stages of advance 
in the technic and motivation of teaching. Newspapers and 
magazines appeal to youth, for in them one finds variety, 
simplicity, and no little beauty (one thinks immediately of 
such a periodical as the " National Geographic Magazine "). 
They are universally popular and in daily use. The pupil who 
is assigned work in this sort of textbook feels that he is doing 
just what his father and elders are doing when they read at 
home. High school work appears to him as having connections 
with life, and that it is in a true sense really practical. More- 
over, not infrequently the newspaper will reprint a novel by 
Hugo or Scott and in this way stimulate interest in these authors. 
The book repels interest where the newspaper and periodical 
awaken zest in study. It should be recalled that many, if 
not most, of the great novels by English masters appeared 
serially. Perhaps one reason for the appeal of the periodical 



46 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

lies in its brevity. One does not feel discouraged at the sight 
of numerous and closely printed pages as with a book. 

General literature. The fourth group is in danger of being 
overemphasized. There has been long current the viewpoint 
that in order to study literature it is necessary to analyze a 
literary product minutely, well-nigh exhaustively. Annota- 
tions by this and that editor are studied, and elaborate notebook 
work is required, until the pupil doubtless feels as the passen- 
ger on a local train. There are seemingly more stops than a 
meaningful approach to any goal. The pupil is lost in the 
wilderness of detailed explanation and interpretation, and 
perhaps fails to get any connected and artistic conception of 
the masterpiece assigned him. Many times the author's notes 
are unsatisfactory, and much time is consumed in trying to find 
them. For convenience it would seem that explanations should 
appear on the same page as the passage treated, and not at the 
end of the book. 

Classification on basis of style. Another classification of 
textbooks might be made on the basis of the principles con- 
trolling the author's style of composition. Some textbooks 
are purely theoretical. The author seems to have sought 
only abstractions, rinding in a pompous and obscure rhetoric 
a vehicle for impressing the reader with the madness of much 
learning. Obviously such books have no appeal for pupils 
in the public schools. But many textbooks in mathematics 
and physics (not to speak of the languages) have this lifeless 
atmosphere. 

On the other hand, one finds the textbook made up of a 
bewildering array of facts, a collection of problems or data 
with no consistent organization, no pedagogical foundations. 
The book appears to be a hasty commercial enterprise. The 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 47 

problems in most cases are purely disciplinary. The book is a 
museum or an exhibit of knowledge. Its only purpose seems 
to be to unfold certain parts of the subject but not at all to 
develop vital initiative, broad understanding, and genuine cre- 
ative interest. 

Between these extremes are the textbooks whose contents 
suffer with overfeeding. Theory and facts and copious 
explanations have been amassed in formidable bulk without 
any apparent discrimination of educational values. There 
is organization but it is all on one plane. The average teacher 
who attempts to complete the course outlined in such a book 
will certainly break down in the attempt. The author has 
had only an exhaustive treatment of the subject in mind. 
It may be a valuable and up-to-date discussion, but the 
book gives little evidence that the author had a partic- 
ular kind of pupil-group in mind, or any conception of 
curriculum making as controls in the organization of his 
book. 

A fourth kind of textbook does reveal evaluation but again 
it is the author's own reaction. He has not weighed the 
material in the light of any carefully considered principles 
of educational values. In history, for example, wars are, to 
him, more important than institutions. Political and military 
dates seem to him to be more vital than industrial and eco- 
nomic progress. The book is overbalanced with material that 
is either of the traditional sort found in most texts on the sub- 
ject, or the selection of subject-matter rests on a theory of 
educational values that apparently has not considered the 
needs of pupils in our modern industrial and democratic age. 
It ought to be clear that a textbook must represent a consen- 
sus of the most modern opinions on the subject of which it 



48 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

treats. This opinion will undergo revision, and as it changes 
the textbook must be altered. A one-man textbook may 
have many commendable features but for the best educa- 
tional results the book must express the judgment of a large 
group of investigators who have found certain emphases de- 
sirable in the respective subjects. 

There remains for mention the textbook whose contents 
have been selected and arranged with the pupils constantly 
before the author. Their point of view, the range of interests 
natural to their stage of development, and the fundamentals 
of social application possible by means of his particular sub- 
ject, — these control his organization and stimulate an easy, 
clear, attractive style which makes the book what it is intended 
to be — an introduction to knowledge and a means of stimu- 
lating and directing the pupil to obtain, largely by himself, 
the salient data of the subject. 

The Free Textbook. Considerable discussion has arisen 
lately regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the 
free textbook. Many citizens hold the opinion that inasmuch 
as they are taxed for the support of the public school system it 
ought to be unnecessary, and it appears to be unfair, to re- 
quire them to increase their taxes by paying for textbooks. 
Many parents cannot afford to buy as many books as are 
needed. There has been, for these and other reasons, a steady 
increase in the free textbook policy. 

The earliest free textbooks were provided by cities, Phila- 
delphia in 18 1 8 being the first. Other cities have found it 
advisable to introduce free texts. Jersey City did so in 1830 ; 
Newark in 1838; Charleston, S. C, in 1856; Hoboken and 
Elizabeth, New Jersey, about i860; Chester, Penn., in 1864. 
The first state to pass a mandatory state-wide free textbook 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 49 

law was Massachusetts in 1884. The following states now 
have similar free textbook laws : 

Arizona District of Columbia Nebraska 

California Maine Nevada 

Delaware Maryland New Hampshire 

New Jersey Utah 

Pennsylvania Vermont 

Rhode Island Wyoming 

In seventeen other states school districts may supply free 
textbooks if they so desire : 

Colorado Kansas Montana 

Connecticut Michigan New York 

Idaho Minnesota North Dakota 

Iowa Missouri Ohio 

South Dakota Washington 

Texas West Virginia 

Wisconsin 

In New York State textbooks may be furnished in any 
city district and in any union free school district by the school 
board if a special tax is voted. In sixteen other states many 
cities and other districts are supplying free texts without being 
required to do so by any state legislation. 

In Missouri, whenever provision is made for free texts in at 
least the first four grades in the public schools of a district, 
the county subapportions annually to each such school dis- 
trict, from the county foreign insurance tax moneys received 
from the state, an amount to be determined by multiplying 
the number of children on the last enumeration list by the 
ratio used by the state auditor in making the distribution of 



50 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

such moneys among the counties of the state. A school dis- 
trict containing an incorporated town or city is not entitled 
to such aid. 1 

Conditions in Colorado 2 may represent some of the diffi- 
culties regarding free textbook administration elsewhere. The 
Colorado law provides that the purchase of free textbooks in 
any school district shall be at the discretion of the qualified 
electors. The board of directors is required to furnish books 
free to all children when instructed to do so by the voters; 
but it is not allowed to change an adopted text oftener than 
once in four years, nor to provide more than one kind of text 
of the same grade or branch of study in the same department 
of a school. The latter requirement is not generally observed 
in the larger districts, but reports from teachers show that 
very few of the rural schools are provided with supplementary 
texts in reading, geography, and other subjects. 

About three fourths of the children of Colorado are fur- 
nished with textbooks by the districts in which they live. All 
cities with special superintendents supply their books. Out 
of 1846 districts in the state 845 (or about 45 per cent, with 
an enrollment of nearly 75 per cent of the school children) 
furnish textbooks at public expense. 

There is general complaint that school directors in rural dis- 
tricts fail to supply books promptly and of a proper kind. 
And school directors complain that every teacher wants a 
different kind of book. The county superintendent's report 
confirms both sides of the case. Many of the books are out 
of date and also in other ways unsuited to school work in the 
locality where they are used. There is practical uniformity 

1 U. S. Bureau of Educ. Bulletin, 1915 ; No. 22, p. 24. 

2 U. S. Bureau of Educ. Bulletin, 1917; No. 5. 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 51 

in at least ten counties, but in the remaining fifty-two coun- 
ties there is extreme variety. 

The U. S. Commissioner's Report concludes with the recom- 
mendation that the free textbook law should be made manda- 
tory instead of optional, in order that all children in the state 
may be furnished with proper books. Legislation should be 
passed requiring all publishers who wish to do business in the 
state to submit to the state board samples of books with the 
net price list ; to sign a contract agreeing to supply books to 
school authorities at the prices quoted, which shall be as 
low as in other states under similar conditions, and to file a 
bond of from $2000 to $20,000 to be forfeited in case the con- 
tract is violated. The state board should publish a list of 
books, the publishers of which have complied with the law, 
with net prices for the convenience of school authorities in 
making their selections. The state board should omit from 
the published lists any undesirable books, even if the pub- 
lishers have complied with the state law relative to the filing 
of samples, price list, and bond. 

General distribution of free texts. In a study made of school 
administration in the small cities * it was found that 593 
cities, of 1257 reporting, furnished free textbooks, 366 being 
in states that require free textbooks, and 227 in those that 
permit them to be furnished free. In 530 of the 593 cities 
where textbooks are provided free the city board supplies the 
books, while in 63 cities the state does so. In 744 of the 1257 
cities reporting, stationery and pencils are also furnished free. 

The Advantages of Free Textbooks. The following ar- 
guments in favor of free textbooks, have been presented from 
time to time : 

1 U. S. Bureau of Educ. Bulletin, 1915 ; No. 44, by W. S. Defifenbaugh. 



52 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

i, The cost is placed on the district rather than on the in- 
dividual ; there is a lower per capita cost. 

2. Economy is made possible through large orders. (The 
Russell Sage Foundation Bulletin 124 says about 20 per cent 
is saved in this way.) 

3. Books may be changed with little inconvenience when- 
ever different texts are found necessary. 

4. Uniformity of textbooks in each school administrative 
district is secured. This would reduce much of the con- 
fusion in the transfer of pupils from school to school. Many 
superintendents find this to be true. 

5. Poor children may attend school equipped in this respect 
as well as the more well-to-do children. 

6. A larger enrollment is possible because the cost to the 
parent is less. (The Massachusetts law on free texts resulted 
in a 10 per cent increase in high school enrollment.) 

7. Everybody has a book, and the school work can start 
promptly the first day. 

8. Additional or supplementary texts may be provided for 
the enrichment of the teacher's point of view, scope of illus- 
trations and applications. Such additional texts are avail- 
able also for the wider study of a subject by the pupils. 

It would seem that in the effort to establish universal edu- 
cation nothing should be left undone to bring educational 
advantages to poor and rich alike. In the present advance 
of the cost of living, and the danger of sacrificing education 
for the business of war, it is all the more needful that the state 
make it possible for everybody to share in the benefits of public 
school training. The free textbook should, therefore, be given 
to all who enroll in the public schools. It would be undemo- 
cratic to provide free books only for the poor. We cannot 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 53 

afford to single out for public and visible charity any boy or 
girl in democracy's great agency of uplift. The textbook must 
be free to everybody or to none at all. 

Disadvantages of the Free Textbook. It must be admitted, 
however, that free and uniform textbooks have certain dis- 
advantages. These have been summarized by Mr. Monohan 
of the United States Bureau of Education and by others as 
follows : 

1. Parents and pupils are made to realize that they 
become wholly dependent on the state. They should as- 
sume some of the responsibilities of education. 

2. Increased school taxes would be necessary if free text- 
books were provided. 

3. Children should not be required to use books soiled 
by other children. 

4. Free textbooks are likely to be carriers of disease. 

5. By the parent purchasing textbooks home libraries may 
be built up. The pupil would have a collection of reference 
books. 

6. Books furnished free are not cared for as well as those 
owned by the pupils. 

7. The lack of the sense of possession is a weakness in the 
development of self-respect. 

8. The free textbook cannot be marked and reorganized 
for study purposes as conveniently as one owned by the pupil. 

9. It is difficult to recover books from pupils who drop 
school and move away. Hence the cost of equipment is raised 
and waste is increased. 

Some of these arguments have weight. There are parents 
who expect too much from the state. Many of these parents 
give but little to society, but are content to let others pro- 



54 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

videthem with the advantages of a democracy. It doubtless 
is true that handling books soiled by children improperly 
trained in the home, is objectionable to children with more 
cleanly habits. The same disadvantage, however, is found in 
free public libraries and in school libraries. A weekly inspec- 
tion of the textbooks and drill in removing the stains that can 
be erased would meet this objection to some extent. 

Unquestionably the strongest argument against free text- 
books is the fourth on the list. They do carry germs of in- 
fectious diseases. A careful record of pupil and home health, 
however, and scrupulous disinfection of all books between 
terms would relieve this condition to no small extent. 

It is doubtful if the purchase of school books by the home 
would greatly augment the home library. And a library of 
textbooks would be a rather uninteresting affair. Besides, 
textbooks soon become out of date. Furthermore, the 
secondhand book business would prevent the increase of the 
home library. 

If the school teachers supervise the care of textbooks by 
means of drills in the care of the book, it is likely that the 
school-owned book will be as neat and well preserved as any 
book owned by the pupil. 

Employing the devices discussed in Chapter V would partly 
answer the objections under 8. 

In connection with the policy of free textbooks it is impor- 
tant for teachers to adopt some scheme of distributing and 
supervising the care of the books loaned to the pupils. A 
record should be kept of all books given out ; a receipt or check- 
ing scheme for all books returned. The pupil must be cau- 
tioned regarding the proper care of the book. Providing covers 
becomes part of the pupil's responsibility at this point unless 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 



55 



the school itself supplies heavy manila covers. The follow- 
ing record card is suggested : 

Record Card of Books Loaned to Pupils 



NAME OF PUPIL 

GRADE SUBJECT- 
NAME OF BOOK 



HOME ADDRESS- 



condition of 
Book 



New 



Good 



Fair 



Dates of 
Loan 



Loaned 



Re- 
turned 



Condition of Book on 
Return 



Ex- 
cellent 



Back 
broken 



Torn 
pages 



Soiled 
badly 



Disposition of 
Book 



Loaned 
again 



Sent for 
repairs 



Dis 

carded 



Figure I 

This record card might be kept by a trustworthy pupil, 
called the class librarian. If this office is treated as one of 
responsibility and honor, the pupils will accord it respect and 
serve its purpose conscientiously. 

Uniform Textbooks. Another serious problem deals with 
state uniformity of textbooks. The advantage of such a 
policy lies in the reduction of cost made possible by large 
sales, and also the ease with which pupils transferred from 
school to school can adjust themselves to new conditions. 
The following states have uniform textbooks : 



Alabama 


Florida 


Indiana 


Arizona 


Georgia 


Kansas 


California 


Idaho 


Kentucky 



56 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 



Louisiana 


Montana 




New Mexico 


Mississippi 


Nevada 




North Carolina 


Oklahoma 




Tennessee 


Oregon 




Texas 




South Carolina 


Utah 





Virginia 

It has been pointed out by investigators in this field that 
these states fall into two large groups, the Southern and the 
Plateau States. Both of these have comparatively new pub- 
lic school systems. Where pioneer conditions seem to pre- 
dominate, it is important educationally that some central 
control unify growth until strength and confidence have been 
gained for more diversified organization. 

Arguments for and against uniformity. Which policy is 
better, state uniformity or local option, has not yet been finally 
determined. Doubtless too much of either would prove detri- 
mental. Some writers on the subject believe that 

The unit of local adoption should always coincide with the unit 

of supervision the same authority that prepares the 

course of study and supervises its execution in the schools should 
select the books that will prove most effective in carrying out that 
course of study. . . . Supervision, course of study, and adoption 
of texts rightly belong together. 1 

The advantage of such a scheme is more apparent than 
real, say the proponents of state uniformity. The needs 
of pupils throughout a state are not so varied that wholly 
different kinds of textbooks are necessary. Local needs are 
easily provided for by the teacher's supplementary material. 

1 Cubberley and Elliott, " State and County School Administration — Source 
Book;" Macmillan, 1915. 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 57 

Many local boards, with the laborious process of adopting 
texts, would simply multiply a task difficult enough for a 
state board to perform. 

Doubtless few central boards adopt any text without con- 
sulting with educational experts, who may be expected to 
understand the merits of a good text. While diversity is 
necessary in a democracy like our own, there is also need of 
unifying agencies, and particularly so with a migratory popu- 
lation like our own. 

The argument that uniform textbooks are desirable because 
when pupils move from place to place they must change 
books, may be answered in two ways. First, the local com- 
munity might buy the pupil's old books and the money could 
then be used for buying the new books. Second, while the 
number of high school transients is large these pupils after 
all are in the minority. The state must legislate principally 
for majorities. It is not always feasible to give recognition 
to individual exceptions. 1 

Professor John Adams inquires whether national uniformity 
in textbooks is desirable. 2 There is a considerable amount 
of material that is taught everywhere. Take the subject of 
arithmetic for example. Adams supposes, for the sake of 
argument, that national uniformity in this subject is possible. 
By such national agreement social communication might be 
enhanced to an even greater degree than now obtains. Again, 
in history, if a government desires a special set of books in 
this subject, and prescribes them for use in the school, it can 

1 An excellent Summary of laws regarding Free Textbooks and State Uni- 
formity may be found in the U. S. Bureau of Educ. Bulletin, 1915, No. 36, by 
A. C. Monohan. 

2 Evolution of Educational Theory, pp. 388-90. The Macmillan Co., 19 12. 



58 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

lift the new generation to present ideals and purposes in a 
comparatively short time. 

The obvious answer to any proposal of national uniformity 
in textbooks is, of course, that in this country there is no fed- 
eral control of education. But if there were such a central 
authority it would still be highly • doubtful whether or not 
such control would be advisable. The hope of the textbook 
situation is that full and free competition makes possible 
improved texts and a change of texts whenever needed. It 
would be a gloomy day for education if a central authority 
or representatives of a national party in power dictated the 
contents of study and ordered textbooks of an ultra-biased 
point of view. 

If the minimum essentials in the various subjects can be de- 
termined it would perhaps be economical to have brief texts con- 
taining only these fundamentals. Supplementary material 
could then be prepared in the form of pamphlets, to be used 
only by the teachers. Such an arrangement would possibly 
curtail the large quantity of material that is now deemed 
essential for pupils to study. 

The Cost of Textbooks. It is easy to generalize and to 
exaggerate conclusions regarding nation-wide movements and 
expenditures. It is commonly believed that vast and in- 
ordinate sums are expended yearly on educational equip- 
ment. Taking the expenditures in bulk, the figures do loom 
large. Nearly a billion dollars a year spent on education, 
directly and indirectly, seems a tremendous outlay to indi- 
viduals who fail to estimate the cost of education in compara- 
tive terms. And in the making and buying of textbooks it is 
quite popularly believed that too much money is given to 
publishing houses and to authors. 



Its Meaning and Methods of Study 59 

In considering this subject, the cost of textbooks, it will 
be interesting to consider first the cost of making them. 
When this information is before us it may be that the cost 
of textbooks to the schools or to the citizens will not seem as 
exorbitant as now appears to be the case. 

Cost of making textbooks. The making of textbooks is a 
tine art, and one which has been slowly developing for many 
years. Because it really is a fine art, there are varying de- 
grees of excellence among textbooks. Some lack style, others 
ride a hobby, some lack the results of wide experience on the 
part of the author, and many are wanting in the essentials 
of thorough scholarship. When a textbook publisher has a 
series of books that have been tested and not found wanting 
— and be sure that it has taken years of the hardest kind of 
work, much money ventured, and much lost in unsuccessful 
experiments — he still has before him ever-present troubles 
and expenses that no one but another publisher dreams of. 
A textbook must be kept strictly up to date. Every history 
that touches modern times must have something added to it 
every year. The United States Census every ten years costs 
the textbook publisher, especially the publisher of geogra- 
phies, more in proportion than it costs the government. 
Between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars have been spent 
in a single year after the Census returns began to come out, 
by one publisher in correcting the plates of a series of geogra- 
phies. This expense did not include the loss of the old stock 
of books that had to be destroyed. 

Moreover, the first cost of textbooks is vastly greater than 
that of any other books, first cost meaning the cost of setting 
the type, making electrotype plates, and the illustrations and 
maps where these are required. And no other books use 



60 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

maps and illustrations so abundantly. The cost of maps for 
a series of geographies may be forty thousand dollars, and the 
entire first cost of such a series more than a hundred thousand 
dollars. 

The first cost of a primer runs from two to four thousand 
dollars, and is always a large sum because primers must be abun- 
dantly illustrated with the very best pictures available for 
the purpose. Compare these prices with that of the ordinary 
novel, whose first cost will hardly exceed six hundred dollars. 
Yet the selling price of the novel ranges from one dollar and 
twenty-five cents to one dollar and a half, while the primer 
sells for but twenty-five or thirty cents. 1 

The entire volume of the textbook business in the United 
States is about twelve million dollars a year, divided among 
one hundred publishers. 

Cost of textbooks to the citizens. The second consideration 
under the cost of textbooks concerns the amount of cost to 
the consumer. If the state were relieved of the burden of sup- 
plying texts would there not be considerable reduction in taxes, 
— ask the citizens who so easily exaggerate ? But a careful 
survey of the cost, compared with other expenditures, throws 
a rather different light on this aspect of public education. 
The following approximate outlays do not indicate that too 
much money is used up in schoolbooks. In the United States 
we spend approximately the following amounts per annum 
for some of our luxuries and necessities : 

Spirituous liquors $579,000,000, an average of $5.79 per person 

Boots and shoes 512,000,000, an average of 5.12 per person 

Tobacco 417,000,000, an average of 4.17 per person 

Bread and bakeries 397,000,000, an average of 3.97 per person 

1 Chas. H. Thurber, "What about Textbooks?" Outlook, Sept. 13, 1913. 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 61 

Moving pictures 275,000,000, an average of $2.75 per person 

Automobiles 249,000,000, an average of 2.49 per person 

Agricultural implements . . . 146,000,000, an average of 1.46 per person 

Patent medicines 142,000,000, an average of 1.42 per person 

Confectionery 135,000,000, an average of 1.35 per person 

Coffee 100,000,000, an average of 1.00 per person 

Chewing gum 25,000,000, an average of 0.25 per person 

School books 17,000,000, an average of 0.17 per person 

The enrollment in elementary and secondary education in 
this country is about 19,000,000. The annual cost of school 
books per pupil is approximately seventy-eight cents. About 
two per cent of the total cost of school maintenance, support, 
and equipment is spent annually on textbooks. The cost per 
child on the school population basis (5-18 years of age) is 
approximately fifty-six and six- tenths cents and the annual cost 
of textbooks per pupil nearly seventeen cents. These data 
seem to answer the second objection to free textbooks in the 
list on page 53. Shown graphically the relative cost of 
school books appears as shown in Figure II (p. 62). 

The increase of prices within the last year will, of course, 
raise the per capita cost of school books, but it is probable that 
the distribution of expenditures as shown in the table and in 
the graph will remain about the same, i.e. school books will 
hold approximately the lowest place in the scale of expendi- 
tures. 

Convenient method of introducing free texts. If conditions 
make it impossible to meet the initial cost of providing books, 
the gradual introduction of them as suggested by Cubberley 
is to be commended. He says : 

A good beginning might be made by supplying in the elementary 
schools everything except the regular textbooks ; this would prob- 
ably cost about $2 per pupil per year, of which about one half would 



62 



Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 



Comparative Annual Cost of Schoolbooks and Some Other Articles 
in Common Use en the United States 



Llquora, Distilled, 
Malt and Vinous 

Tobacco Manufactures 



010 25 50 15 



IN MILLIONS 
100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275 300 



Newspapers and Periodicals { 

Automobiles 

Silks 

Pat. Med. and Druggists' Prep. 

Confectionery 

Pianos and Organs 

Millinery and Lace Goods 

Jewelry 

Boxes, fancy and paper 

Mineral and Soda Waters 

Explosives 

Firearms and Ammunition 

Corsets 

Ribbons 

Artificial Flowers and Feathers 

Cash Reg. and Calc. Mach. 

Buttons 

Sweaters 

Typewriters 

Umbrellas and Canes 

Paper Bags 

Blacking and Cleaning Prep. 

Signs and Advertising Novelties 

SCHOOLBOOKS 

Phonographs 

Sporting Goods 

Matches 

Flavoring Extracts 

Cigar Boxes 

Toys and Games 

Flags, Badges, etc. 

Needles,Pins,!and Hooks and Eyes 

Billiard Tables and Materials 

Fountain Pens 

Labels and Tags 

Silk Stockings 



Courtesy of American Boot Company 



This diagram is based on the latest and most accurate official statistics — the 
U. S. Census Bureau Bulletin, 1910 ; the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of 
Education, 1911-12; and the separate reports of State Superintendents of 
Public Instruction. 

The annual amount expended for textbooks for public schools is approxi- 
mately $ 12,000,000. 

Figure II 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 6s 

be necessary for stationery and other quickly consumed supplies, 
while the other half should be expended on supplementary books 
and other relatively permanent material. By spending this amount 
for three or four years, a good supply of supplementary books and 
other relatively permanent materials would be accumulated ; then, 
without much increasing the annual costs, the district might under- 
take to supply the regular texts in the elementary schools. All 
books would, of course, be loaned, not given, to pupils. When 
the system of furnishing books and supplies by the district had 
been once completely established, it could be well maintained at 
an annual expenditure not exceeding $2 per pupil in the elementary 
schools. 1 

State Publication of Textbooks. In the effort to reduce the 
cost of textbooks, two states have undertaken to produce their 
own school books. California and Kansas, in their efforts 
along this line, have not yet reached unanimous agreement 
that state production is either cheaper or productive of better, 
if as good, texts. In discussing this subject Dr. John Frank- 
lin Brown reaches the following conclusions : 

1. In no case is lower cost to the people proved if all the expense 
factors are taken into account. 

2. Books produced under state publication are always in- 
ferior in mechanical features. 

3. They are often inferior pedagogically. 

4. There is often serious delay in delivery of books. 

5. It is difficult to change to a better book. 

6. Pupils are sometimes limited to the use of a single book, 
supplementary books being barred. 

7. The state should engage in no business enterprise which 
can safely be left to private effort. 

1 The Portland Survey, World Book Co., 1914, p. 161. 



64 Textbook j How to Use It and Judge It 

8. State publication provides an easy road to inefficiency and 
graft. 

9. It subordinates school interests to political exigencies. 

10. It violates the professional spirit of teachers. 

11. It discourages authorship and competitive publishing effort. 

12. It emphasizes cost rather than quality of educational 
equipment. 

At first glance it would seem logical that the state which 
supports the public school should also produce its own educa- 
tional equipment. In every state there doubtless are persons 
capable of writing texts of merit. But the most serious ob- 
jection to this seemingly obvious plan of state publication 
lies in subjecting scholarship and educational progress to the 
control of politics. We do not need to be reminded that there 
is altogether too much political graft and chicanery in educa- 
tion at present without creating opportunities for more. While 
true that the present conditions prevailing in book adoptions 
are far from ideal, no assurance is offered that state publica- 
tion would provide conditions more ideal. All of the argu- 
ments presented by Dr. Brown are valid. Until states like 
Kansas can prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that state 
publication is superior to the plan now widely in vogue, it 
will be wise to make it possible for competing t publishers to 
produce even better texts, excellent as very many of them 
now are. 

The following data by A. L. Shirer of Topeka, Kansas, 
throw light on conditions of state publication in Kansas. 
In this state where experiments in civic management are cour- 
ageously undertaken, state publication has been given a fair 
trial. The following table gives the exact number of books 
bought by pupils in 191 2-13 at the established retail prices: 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 



65 



TABLE I 



Books Sold 



209,568 
68,526 
58,946 
58,471 
79,H7 
78,119 

109,691 

132,379 
85,182 

H3,938 
40,190 
16,000 

27,758 
254,608 



Title of Book 



Speller 

First Reader . . . . 
Second Reader . . . 
Third Reader . . . . 
Fourth Reader . . . 
Fifth Reader . . . . 
Elementary Arithmetic 
Advanced Arithmetic . 
English, Book One . . 
English, Book Two . . 

Civics 

U. S. History . . . . 
First Hygiene . . . 
Writing 



Retail Price 



11 cents 
11 cents 
19 cents 
25 cents 
33 cents 
44 cents 
28 cents 
39 cents 
22 cents 
39 cents 
44 cents 
55 cents 
30 cents 
5 cents 



Total 



$23,052.48 

7,537-86 

11,199.74 

I4,6i7.75 
26,108.61 
34,372.36 
30,713.48 
51,627.81 
18,740.04 
44,435.82 
17,683.60 
8,800.00 
8,327.40 
12,730.40 



$309,947.35 



Against this total the pupils turned in on the exchange the 
following : 



TABLE II 



Books Sold 



88,209 
10,218 

14,077 
19,436 
30,626 
3 6 ,422 
47,869 

47,651 
16,940 

41,403 
54,778 



Title of Book 



Speller . . . 
First Reader . 
Second Reader 
Third Reader 
Fourth Reader 
Fifth Reader . 
Elementary Arithmetic 
Advanced Arithmetic 

Civics 

English, Book One . 
Grammar .... 



EXCHA* 


jge Price 


5 


cents 


5 


cents 


8| 


cents 


ii£ 


cents 


15 


cents 


20 


cents 


12! 


cents 


*7l 


cents 


20 


cents 


10 


cents 


i7i 


cents 



Total 



$4,410.45 
510.90 
1,196.54 
2,235.14 
4,593.90 
7,284.40 
5,983.62 
8,338.92 
3,388.oo 
4,140.30 
9,586.15 
$51,668.32 



66 



Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 



While the gross sales amounted to #309,947.35, the pupils 
were paid for their old books #51,668.32, making the net 
purchases by pupils, #258,279.03. 

Against this statement should now be placed the same 
quantities of books, etc., at state publication prices as estab- 
lished for 191 7-18. It will be assumed of course that more 
books will be sold this year than were sold in 191 2-13 and that 
the pupils thereby lose more because they cannot turn in for 
exchange the old books. That only increases the total cost to 
pupils. 

TABLE III 



Books Sold 



209,658 
68,526 
58,946 
58,471 
79,H7 
78,119 

109,691 

132,379 
85,182 

H3,938 
40,190 
16,000 
27,758 

254,608 



Title of Book 



Speller 

First Reader . . . . 
Second Reader . . . 
Third Reader . . . . 
Fourth Reader . . . 
Fifth Reader . . . . 
Elementary Arithmetic 
Advanced Arithmetic . 
Language, Book One . 

Grammar 

Civics 

History 

Hygiene 

Writing 



State Publica- 
tion Retail 
Price 



16 

23 
27 
21 

25 
29 
28 
39 

23 
34 
30 
52 
22 



cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 
cents 



Total 



$33,530.88 
15,760.98 
i5,9i5-42 
12,278.91 

19,779-25 
22,654.51 
30,713.48 
51,627.81 
19,591.86 
38,738.92 
12,057.00 
8,320.00 
6,106.76 
20,358.64 



$307,434-42 



It will be seen from this tabulation that state-published 
books have cost the pupils this school year, 191 7-18, a total 
of #49,155.39 more than they were paying for the same books 
under the uniformity law, when the state had no investment 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 67 

and the whole burden of financial responsibility was placed 
on the publishers. 

The above list does not include all the books being published 
by the state but only books published for the first time this 
school year. It is safe to say, however, that the state has 
established no price that could not easily have been duplicated 
by contract, and has produced no book from manuscript that 
has developed any particular educational value beyond others 
of its kind. 

Furthermore, it should be noted that authors (there are ap- 
proximately thirty-five thousand in this country) are dis- 
tributed over a wide area. In no one state is it likely that all 
the subjects have prominent specialists. There is also in 
state publication the false assumption that anybody who knows 
a subject can produce an adequate textbook of this subject. 
The outstanding weakness in textbook writing is not lack of 
scholarship, but the lack of an educational program, the 
absence of any practical conception of how the understanding 
of a subject develops in the mind of the pupil. Anybody can 
throw together facts and call it a textbook. To-day, however, 
we demand something more educational than an encyclopedic 
textbook. Many of the latest textbooks give evidence of the 
author's ability to organize subject-matter from the psycho- 
logical as well as from the logical point of view, with con- 
siderable emphasis on the former. 

Summary. A textbook differs from other kinds of books 
in its organization of material for the purpose of formal edu- 
cation. Its selection of material aims to meet the needs of 
pupils at various stages in their school career. While for- 
merly instruction and training depended upon one book on a 
subject, to-day there are many kinds of books used in class 



68 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

work, and besides these, periodicals and pamphlets not 
specifically in the textbook group. The extension of public 
school education and its enrichment of subject content have 
brought about the need of free texts (without which compul- 
sory education might be impossible), and a certain amount 
of uniformity throughout a particular state. Extreme local 
option or exclusive state uniformity seems undesirable. No 
small problem in the question of free and uniform textbooks 
is that of cost. While the cost of textbooks is less than that 
of other items in school expenditure it is still heavy, both 
from the publisher's and from the consumer's standpoint. 
The fact that the consumer is the public school system is no 
good reason for ignoring the item of cost. It is important, 
however, that taxation be liberal enough to make it possible 
for the educator to procure the latest and the best texts, and 
also to supply a sufficient variety for each class so that the 
pupil's point of view need not be confined to a one-text inter- 
pretation of a subject. 



QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. Define a textbook. 

2. How would you revise or supplement the classification of 
textbooks given in this chapter ? Classify the kinds of books that 
you use for instructional purposes. 

3. When and where were free texts first used in this country? 
Is the free textbook universally used in the United States? 

4. What are the advantages of the free textbook? The dis- 
advantages? Which of the former and which of the latter seem 
to you most significant ? 

5. What are the chief objections to state uniformity of text- 
books? 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 69 

6. How much do the textbooks cost your community? Does 
this cost exceed the average for the country as a whole? 

7. Why is state publication of textbooks undesirable? 

REFERENCES 

Brown, G. E. " Should the State publish its own textbooks ? " Journal 
of Education, 81 : 566-67 ; May 27, 1915. 

California. Council of Education. Report. Sierra Educational News, 
Vol.8: 222-38, May, 1912. State Board of Education. "Concern- 
ing high-school textbooks in California." Sacramento, 1914. Bul- 
letin No. 1. "State textbook plan reviewed." Biennial report, 
1909-10. Sacramento, W. W. Shannon, Superintendent State 
Printing, 1910 : pp. 59-66. 

"The California textbook plan." Journal of Education, Vol. 69: 173- 
80; February 18, 1909. 

Chancellor, William E. "The government publication of school 
books." School Journal, Vol. 80: 218-20; April, 1913, Vol. 81: 
161-4 ; March, 1914. 

Commonwealth Club of California. " State textbooks." San Francisco, 
Cal., 1912 : p. 315-74. 8°. (Transactions, Vol. 7, No. 3, Aug., 1912.) 

Cornell, L. S. " State Uniformity of Textbooks." N. E. A. Proceed- 
ings, 1888; pp. 225-37. 

Covell, L. E. " Should the free textbook system be adopted ? " Min- 
nesota Educational Association. Journal of Proceedings and 
Addresses, 1909. Minneapolis, Minn., Syndicate Printing Company ; 

PP. I5I-55- 

Cox, E. M. " Free textbooks." Western Journal of Education, Vol. 
8: 89-97; February, 1903. 

Cubberley, Ell wood P. " Textbooks." In Cyclopedia of Education. 
Ed. by Paul Monroe. Vol. 5. New York, Macmillan, 19 13. pp. 
756-78. 

Dutton, Samuel T., and Snedden, David. " Free textbooks." In Ad- 
ministration of Public Education in the United States. New York, 
Macmillan, 1908. pp. 216-23. (Rev. ed., 191 2.) 

Evans, Lawton B. "State publication of textbooks." School and 
Home. Vol.6: 7-10; June, 19 14. 



7<d Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

" The Facts about Schoolbook costs." American School Board Journal, 
Vol. 46: 13-4, 52; March, 1913. 

Faulkner, Richard D. " The California State Textbook System." 
Educational Review. Vol. 20 : 44-60 ; June, 1900. 

"Free Textbooks." Outlook. Vol. 112: 643-47; March 22, 1916. 
(Also School and Society, Vol. 3 : 608-10; April 22, 1916.) 

Gathany, J. M. u Weekly outline study of current history." Outlook, 
1917. 

Georgia. General assembly. Schoolbook Investigating Committee 
Report. (Atlanta) 1914. (See also Journal of Education, Vol. 
80: 40, July 19, 1914-) 

Ginn, E. " Schoolbooks, the Publisher and the Public." Independent, 
Vol. 69: 222-5, Aug. 4, 1910. 

Guffin, James T., comp. Report of the hearing on schoolbook legis- 
lation before the joint committee of the senate and house of rep- 
resentatives, Lansing, Michigan. Feb. 19, 1913 ; with an appendix 
by the publisher. (Chicago, J. T. Guffin, 1913.) 

Hartwell, E. C. " Magazine Reading in the High School." Inde- 
pendent, Vol. 77 : 451 ; March 30, 19 14. 

Hunting, W. J. " Free Textbooks." In Nevada State Teachers' Institute 
and State Educational Association. Proceedings and addresses, 
1908. Reno, Nev., pub. by the Association, 1909, pp. 26-33. 

Jenks, Jeremiah W. lt Schoolbook Legislation " (in Indiana). In his 
Citizenship and the Schools. Holt, 1906. pp. 207-64. (Also Pol. 
Sc. Quarterly, March, 1891.) 

Kansas. " Criticism of textbook publication." Elem. Sch. Jour., Vol. 
17: 537-4o; April, 1917; Vol. 13: 414-5; May, 1913. 

Klingaman, 0. E. " Textbook legislation in Iowa." Iowa City, State 
Historical Society of Iowa, 191 5. (Also Iowa Jour, of Hist, and Pol., 
Vol. 13: 53-113; Jan. 191 5.) 

McCray, D. O. "Kansas, Wise and Otherwise." Jour, of Educ, 
Vol.80: 200-2; Sept. 10, 1914. 

McGregor, Ford H. " Free Textbooks." American School Board 
Journal, Vol. 36: 27, April, 1908. 

Marshall, William I. " Should the public schools furnish textbooks 
free to all pupils?" Chicago Free Textbook Committee of the 
Illinois State Teachers' Association, 1898. 



Its Meaning and Methods of Supply 71 

Michigan. Superintendent of public instruction. " Textbook legisla- 
tion." In his Sixty-second annual report, 1898. Lansing, Robert 
Smith Printing Co., 1899. 109 pp. At end of report, pt. 3 ; also 
separately published. 

Free textbooks in Michigan, pp. 18-51. Other States, pp. 61-64. 
Textbook prices, pp. 65-109. 

Minish, M. P. "New Way of Vitalizing the Study of History in 
Schools." Cur. Opinion, Vol. 62 : 242, Apr., 1917. 

Monohan, A. C. "Free Textbooks and State Uniformity." U. S. 
, Bur. Educ. Bulletin, 191 5; No. 36. 

Nebraska. State Superintendent of Public Instruction. " Nebraska's 
Free Textbook Law." In his Nineteenth biennial report, 1905-07. 
Fremont, Nebr., Hammond Printing Company, pp. 81-91. 

New York (State). Department of Efficiency and Economy. Report 
of investigation of the cost of providing free textbooks in the public 
schools of the State of New York, 1914. Albany; Lyon, 1915. 

Ontario. Textbook commission. Report. Toronto, Cameron; 1907. 

Pulslfer, William E. "An Argument against State Publication." 
(New York, 1914.) 

Robinson, L. N. " Textbooks in Economics." Sch. and Soc, Vol. 4 : 
990-3 ; Dec. 30, 1916. 

Russell Sage Foundation. Division of education. " Textbook Legisla- 
tion. In A comparative study of public-school systems in the forty- 
eight states. New York City (191 2). pp. 28-9. (Pub. No. 124.) 

St. Louis, Mo., Board of Education. " Free Books and Stationery." In 
its Annual report, 1905, pp. 241-50. 

" State Uniformity in high school textbooks." Jour, of Educ, Vol. 82 : 
119, 20; Aug. 19, 191 5. 

"State Distribution of Textbooks." Nation, 98: 73, Jan. 22, 1914. 

"Textbook and Supplies." U. S. Bur. of Educ. Bulletin 1910, No. 2; 
162-70. 

Townsend, E. J. " The Textbook Question." Education, n : 556-65 ; 
May, 1 89 1. 

" Waking up the Class : using the ' Literary Digest ' in class work." 
Lit. Digest, Vol. 54: 254; Feb. 3, 191 7. 

Waterman, S. D. "The advantages and disadvantages of a free text- 
book system." Western Jour, of Educ, Vol. 8 r 362-6 ; May, 1903. 



72 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

Winship, A. E. "Textbooks — educational, commercial, and politi- 
cal." Jour, of Educ, Vol. 81 : 285-8; March 18, 1915. (Also 
in Amer. School, Vol. 1: 69-71; Mar. 191 5.) 

Wisconsin. Legislature. Special textbook committee. Report, 191 1. 
Submitted to the legislature, 1913. 66 pp. 

Wyer, J. S., Jr. " Textbooks and some others." Jour, of Educ, Vol. 
80: 427-8; Nov. 5, 1914. 

See American School Board Journal, " Textbook news," each issue, for 
latest information. 

Tash, Thomas. " Free Textbooks for Free Schools." N. E. A. Pro- 
ceedings, 1888; pp. 220-5. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE SELECTION AND JUDGING OF TEXTBOOKS 

Selection of Textbooks, the Business of Experts. For 

many years it has been a popular principle of school adminis- 
tration that anybody at all interested in the public schools 
ought to be able to select textbooks for the various grades 
and subjects. There are parents who sometimes vehemently 
insist upon a certain book being adopted for the quite natural 
reason that it is cheap. School boards, whose members 
one may assume are well informed in their major fields of 
activity, frequently regard themselves as experts in such 
matters as the selection of teachers and textbooks, refusing 
to delegate such expert service to the superintendent and to 
teachers, who are the logical experts in these paramount issues 
of instruction. The selection of textbooks is just as technical 
a problem as the choice of tools for efficient work in any in- 
dustry. Now and then, of course, there are laymen whose 
opinions on teachers and textbooks deserve careful consider- 
ation, just as one meets a layman who can hit upon good tools 
for his amateur homecrafts. But, as a rule, the layman de- 
pends upon the advice of the bookman who is expected to 
know the selling points of his books and wherein his goods are 
better than those of a competitor. Consequently, the sup- 
plying of books for the millions of boys and girls in our schools 
only too frequently is a purely business proposition, where 

73 



74 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

the salesman's personality and shrewdness determine the 
educational policy of a school system. 

The Bookman, a Valuable Servant of Education. The 
bookman, however, very often renders invaluable service in 
pointing out and exploiting the aims and methods of the 
author whose textbook he is trying to sell. In the beginning 
the author and the publisher were both printers and salesmen, 
but as business increased it became necessary to employ sales- 
men to market the books. The bookmen have become ex- 
perts in their various lines, and in many instances are con- 
scientious students not only of current demands but of the 
more technical development of the various subjects. By in- 
troducing the teacher and school officials to new and greatly 
improved texts the bookman helps to accelerate the progress 
of educational methods. Without the bookman's analysis 
of his texts many books would never be examined, for school 
administrators are busy people. They do not have time to 
read many books. They welcome sincere help from the book- 
man. They recognize that he is a salesman ; he has goods 
to sell, and his house expects him to multiply big orders and 
to get long adoptions. This is business, and without its 
methods there doubtless would be little progress in any field. 

But the school administrator who is honest in his purpose 
has no patience with a bookman who spends a half hour and 
more merely tearing to pieces a competitor's books. In most 
books there are strong and weak qualities. The perfect text 
does not exist. The standard bookman must be well informed 
in his own field. If he sells algebras, he ought to know the 
subject itself. He may have some one in the teaching pro- 
fession compose a " Selling Talk," but it would be better if 
he made a careful analysis of his own and of his competitors' 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 75 

books so as to make it definite wherein his books are really 
better than those of his competitor. The fair attitude for a 
salesman to take is that " our competitors' books are good, 
but we have sought to improve on them, to include the results 
of most recent scholarship in this subject ; and here is what 
we offer. These are the improvements." The educator will 
easily agree if the new book does present, very evidently, 
superior features. 

" When suitable opportunity to meet teachers and superintendents 
is given bookmen, only good can come from their visits. It is a 
maxim among bookmen that the busiest, ablest, and most prom- 
inent school officials and teachers are always the easiest to see. 
It is so rare when a bookman is denied an interview or prevented 
from prosecuting his missionary work, that such occasions are a 
negligible quantity. An insistent, ill-mannered individual may, it 
is true, place himself outside the pale of even the generous courtesy 
of the school world. Of course, there are some narrow-minded, 
self-centered, all-knowing school officials who look upon the book- 
man as an unnecessary evil. Such men are rare; such attitude 
being reflected in their school activities elsewhere usually 
brings about severe criticism. Trade, commerce, and science 
are interwoven together. Nothing is more anomalous, illogical, 
and unjust than antagonism between publishers, bookmen, and 
teachers. There should be complete sympathy, understanding, 
and concert between them. The bookman should express this 
policy in his actions at all times. Courteous, respectful, but 
not apologetic, anxious to perform his principal duty as 
salesman, reasonably jealous of the ethics and responsibilities of 
his profession, but conscious that he is a factor in the cause 
of education — such is the acceptable bookman. To my mind, 
therefore, the bookman belongs properly in the system of education. 
He has a necessary function to perform. He will perform that 



7 6 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

function until other parts of the system develop, so that the work 
performed by him can be better performed by them. Then, in 
accordance with the law of progress he will pass away. Until that 
time it is to be hoped that he will live his life with the agencies 
for good in the schools, and do his part towards reducing the num- 
ber of his shortcomings, that thereby the efficiency and well-being 
of the schools may be increased." 

The bookman, furthermore, through his travels is frequently 
able to find authors for improved texts. In this way he 
may stimulate teachers to creative effort and to wide influ- 
ence, not to mention large bank accounts. He is frequently 
called upon for advice by the publisher, for the bookman 
knows, by observation, how his firm's books stand the wear 
and tear of daily usage. 

Methods of Adoption. It is needless to add that there 
are numerous exceptions to the foregoing conditions. State 
book adoption, while only too often a source of political 
graft, is in many instances determined by an invisible group 
of educators whose opinions have been sought by conscientious 
members of the textbook committee. Our large city school 
boards, as a rule, elect a superintendent who is regarded as an 
expert in school matters, and to whom is delegated the pro- 
fessional responsibility of selecting the teachers and educa- 
tional equipment for the schools. He in turn knows full well 
that no one man can be expert in all the branches of school 
work. Assistant superintendents, directors, supervisors of 
departments, and teachers are assigned duties properly within 
their expert knowledge. Upon them, especially the teachers, 
he depends for a wise choice of school books. The selection of 
a textbook, even under this systematic arrangement, is no easy 
task. Much reading, careful comparison, and full and frank 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 77 

discussion are needed. Many meetings may be required. 
Laborious and depressing labor is imperative. But surely 
this process, democratic and scientific, is far more just to the 
school children than the choice which depends solely upon a 
whim or upon the brilliant canvas of a magnetic salesman 
presenting inferior books to an unscrupulous political " an- 
nex " of a corrupt publishing house. 1 

There is no one universally approved method of adopting 
textbooks. Many, if not all, of the best educators question 
the wisdom of state adoption, for under this form, it is claimed, 
the influence of teachers, principal, or superintendent is al- 
most destroyed. In cities and towns the trend is strong to 
place the responsibility of decision regarding textbooks in 
the hands of teachers and their superior ofhcers. In Massa- 
chusetts a law of over forty years' standing reads : 

" Changes may be made in the textbooks used in a town at 
any time, notice having been given at a previous meeting, and 
two thirds of the members of the board voting in the affirma- 
tive." The superintendent is now required to make recom- 
mendations regarding textbooks to the Board of Education. 

Bookmen are glad, as a rule, to have their texts read by 
well-informed teachers rather than to depend upon "the 
influence of a politician, or upon the relative of some board 
member's wife, and upon the enthusiasm for a rival's wares, 
or on someone who belongs to the same college fraternity 
or went to the same preparatory school." 

There are, however, vicious methods more common in the 
past than now, employed by unscrupulous bookmen without 
any real knowledge of the merits of a book, but simply eager 

1 See Educational Survey of Wyoming. U. S. Bur, of Educ, Bulletin, 1916; 
No. 29; p. 56. 



78 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

to swell business, to oust a competitor, or to prevent other 
publishers from becoming competitors. " The bonus system, 
post-dating of bills, extra discounts, cutting of prices when 
times are dull, is common enough in all lines of trade. The 
big bulk of American business is honest. It could not exist 
otherwise." This does not exclude the possibility of certain 
kinds of salesmen who have a blunted moral sense, and who 
interpret making good to mean " put it over," competing 
with a competitor by base methods often covered up by the 
attribute " shrewd." 

In this connection it is interesting to review an article by 
Frank A. Fitzpatrick. 1 He says that the errors of book- 
men may be grouped under four heads : 

i. Discrimination in terms — giving to one place better 
rates than to another in order to secure business, some phase 
of the bonus system, etc. 

2. Undue activity in the politics of the N. E. A. and State 
Teachers' Associations. 

3. Meddling in the affairs of the school, assisting teachers 
and superintendents to secure places, the use of political in- 
fluence in or outside of the schools. 

4. Personal criticism of competitors for imagined business 
gain. 

In considering these errors, seriatim, Fitzpatrick confesses 
that the first is not altogether unavoidable. Personal feel- 
ings cannot always be eliminated in business, and publishers 
are compelled merely to frown upon instances of unethical 
dealing on the part of a skilled representative. If such errors 
become too gross, the managers and representatives can 
make proper changes in conferences. The second criticism 

1 Educational Review, March, 191 2. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 79 

has hardly any foundation in fact. Bookmen, of course, 
attend such meetings. They frequently are members of the 
association that is in assembly. If they exercise alert attention 
to what is going on, and at the invitation of superintendents 
or teachers discuss some of the newest publications, this is 
merely good business form. 

The third criticism is undoubtedly well founded in some 
instances. Some publishers do attempt to influence school 
board elections so as to procure political plums in the form of 
large book adoptions. Getting the ear of the board is of 
course all essential and wholly legitimate, but when this 
means bossism in ousting from office or electing to office super- 
intendents and members of school boards or any others with 
influence in adoptions, one cannot protest vigorously enough 
against a system so pernicious to the welfare of the school 
child. For such political maneuvering may mean the pre- 
vention of any competition at all. Such a publisher is seeking 
absolute suzerainty, regardless of whether or not his texts 
have merit. 

The fourth error is admitted and deplored. Perhaps the 
best apology for its common occurrence is that more of it was 
done formerly and in much more questionable ways. There 
is improvement, but when competition is intense and big 
orders are the stake, desperate measures are likely to be used. 

It is only fair to add that in the past many school board 
members were perfectly willing that certain kinds of publishers 
should employ flexible business methods. There was a time in 
practically all branches of business where bribes of various 
sorts were expected. There has been such reform in this 
matter that it is now the exception to find prospective cus- 
tomers requiring " special favors " in giving an order. The 



80 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

book business of to-day is honest and dignified. The excep- 
tions must not blind us to the prevailing condition. It would 
be impossible for publishers of textbooks to continue long in 
their trade if they practiced illegitimate business methods. 

When Textbooks Should be Adopted. The prevailing time 
for the adoption of schoolbooks is toward the end of the 
school year. The heaviest buying period is in July and 
August. If the texts were ordered earlier better prices could be 
obtained and freight delays avoided or greatly reduced. The 
following announcement from the United States Bureau of 
Education states the issue very clearly: 

Earlier ordering of school textbooks by boards of education 
offers a fruitful field for saving in war time, according to Henry 
P. Kendall, of the Plimpton Press, whose statement on the subject 
has been transmitted to the Bureau of Education of the Depart- 
ment of the Interior. If school boards can arrange to adopt school 
texts before January first, asserts Mr. Kendall, instead of waiting 
until the end of the school year in June, a large saving in the 
schoolbook printing and binding trades will result. Ordering school 
textbooks earlier in the year will, it is declared, help to regularize 
employment in the schoolbook trade, making uniform hours of 
work and rates of pay possible throughout the year. In one plant at 
the present time the hours of labor so vary between winter and 
summer, that on a basis of ioo per cent as the flat weekly wage, 
operators during the summer months, because of overtime, earn 
about 130 per cent, and during the winter months about 60 per 
cent. The workers are obliged to work very long hours in the 
summer time and go without vacations. 

Earlier ordering of school books will also conserve human 
energy, because it will make it possible to run a factory with a 
minimum number of employees ; it will save machinery, because 
less will be required to produce ; and it will save coal in conserving 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 81 

the heat, light and power. Furthermore, the efficiency of the 
plant can be greatly increased where work is uniform in quantity, 
and the cost of production is much less in a plant where the product 
is produced more uniformly. 

How Texts Begin To Be Written. The textbook usually 
begins when a teacher organizes a course in a new way. Visi- 
tors observe its good qualities and perhaps adopt some of its 
good points. The teacher or a friend may inform the pub- 
lisher of the new method, and if he finds it worth careful 
study he may ask the teacher to submit a description of the 
method. The teacher soon finds that writing for himself is 
one thing, and that writing for the publisher is a wholly dif- 
ferent matter. In the working and reworking of the copy 
many details are added, and after much labor the manuscript 
finally is finished and sent to the publisher. Editors, expert 
readers, and perhaps special authorities now read the manu- 
script carefully. It may be accepted and still be far from 
satisfactory in form. So the manuscript is returned for re- 
visions and again the author and manuscript have tedious 
hours together. Or the manuscript may be rejected because 
the author failed to make himself understood, or because his 
ideas are not approved by the critical readers. Or it may be 
rejected because its educational theories are far in advance 
of present demands in school practice. There probably would 
be little sale of the book under such conditions. 

The Selection of Textbooks 

In the bewildering multiplication of textbooks every year, 
and in the din of praises sung by bookmen eager to sell 
their books, it is important to consider the question : What 



82 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

is a good textbook? Wherein is one textbook better than 
another? The final answer to these questions is not yet 
ready, but considerable progress has been made toward 
standardization of textbooks in the various subjects. In this 
chapter are quoted some of the schemes that have been 
adopted by practical school people. The standards here 
set forth may suggest to other teachers and school adminis- 
trators ways and means of constructing for themselves 
standards even better and more attainable. 

Standards of Judging Textbooks in Cincinnati, Ohio. 
This plan was prepared by Miss Anne M. Nicholson, expert 
for the California State Board of Education. It was accepted 
by the Cincinnati Schoolmasters' Club, and was reproduced 
recently in the School Index, the official exponent of the 
Cincinnati school system. 

i. Preliminary investigation of expiring contracts: to deter- 
mine local attitude toward the text in use — whether it is satis- 
factory or unsatisfactory, and in what particulars ; (questionnaires 
and conferences) to determine comparative merit of textbook in 
use and others on the market ; (tabulation of city and state adop- 
tions) to discover texts most in favor; preliminary examination 
of the seemingly best texts. 

2. Result: the need of a new textbook established or denied, 
the features in demand for the new text discovered. 

3. Advertise for bids from publishers and require submission 
of texts. 

4. Investigation by expert readers of the merits of the books 
submitted. These expert readers should include representatives 
from the teachers' college, the principals and the active teaching 
force. Reports should be made on prepared blank forms indicating 
the standards to be applied. 

5. Tabulations of the returns should be in the hands of a 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 83 

committee and a report made of the findings to the Superin- 
tendent. 

6. The report of this committee should be referred to the text- 
book committee of the Board of Education, who should have the 
bids and all financial aspects of the textbook matter in hand. 

7. The report of the textbook committee should come before 
the full board of education for final approval. 

STANDARDS FOR TEXTBOOK ADOPTION 

A good text should include : 

1. a — Material whose scholarly nature should be not only- 
unquestioned and endorsed, but apparent. 

b — Significant, essential facts, the selection of which is 
endorsed by a recognized body of experts, including teachers in 
active service. 

c — Such selection and use of material to give such life and 
color as is organic, and does not tend to obscure essentials. 

d — Such treatment of these facts as will leave a unified 
graphic impression of the whole, so ordered as to be available when 
needed. 

e — Such opening pages as connect with present social 
needs in as intimate a way as possible. 

2. A good textbook should include such organization of essen- 
tial significant facts as meets the requirements of unity, definite- 
ness, and proportion. 

Unity — This may be secured by grouping facts into units 
interrelated among themselves, and having definite relation to 
the whole. Captions should indicate these relations. 

Definiteness — This may be secured by a statement of the prob- 
lem or purpose at the outset, an orderly, graphic synopsis at the 
close of each unit, an emphasis on "milestones" of the subject, 
and a grasp of the relation to the whole scheme or phase of experi- 
ence under consideration. 



84 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Proportion — This may be secured by paralleling the units in 
minimum time allotments (see page 64, New York State Course 
of Study) by pages of material. This should not be done to the 
extent of rigidity. 

A good text should include graphs, outlines, charts, etc., to 
enable the pupils to see the relation of the task in hand to what has 
been accomplished and what remains to be accomplished. 

3. Style — When containing discourse, a good text should be 
written in a style that is clear, graphic, colorful, dramatic (when 
possible), virile, dynamic (where suitable), intimate, attractive, 
and wholesomely technical when economy and necessity de- 
mand. 

4. Appeal to Children — A good text should possess salient 
qualities that appeal to children, e.g. : 

Attractive exterior. 

Inviting page arrangement. 

Illustrative material (based on action when possible). 

"Picturesque" titles of chapters and paragraphs. 

Concreteness, picturesqueness, and intimacy of style (rich in 
incident, intimate in the telling). 

Preference for short sentences. 

Abundant direct quotations (where possible). 

Novelty and resourcefulness in presentation. 

Cleverly-planned tasks. 

A warp of children's everyday experience. 

Opportunity for mastery of definite " units, " thereby contributing 
to the glow of achievement. 

Competitive schemes for review. 

Visual presentation of abstractions — graphs, etc. 

5. Illustrations — A good text should include illustrations that 
tend in size, character, and distribution to indicate the relative 
importance or significance of the content, e.g. : 

In history the illustrations should focus attention on men and 
events of most far-reaching influence. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 85 

A good text should include illustrations that appeal to the 
interests of children for whom the text is intended. 

A good text should include illustrations that in design, color, 
and composition satisfy the recognized canons of art. 

6. Provision for Teaching — The teachers' edition should 
include : 
An introduction, giving : 

A brief summary of the best pedagogical knowledge of the 
subject treated : a review of the experimental studies by 
which these conclusions have been reached. 
An evaluated scale to measure ability. 

A list of a few books immediately bearing upon the subject in 
hand. 
The students' edition should contain: 

a. An introduction cleverly planned, intimate in style, to produce 
a favorable first impression. 

b. Points to be noted at the beginning of each chapter or other 
unit of work. 

c. Corresponding enumeration of vital points at the close of the 
unit. 

d. Graphic devices to place the matter in hand in relation to 
what has preceded and what is to follow. 

e. Other interesting cumulative reviews in the form of com- 
petitive contests. 

/. Exercises to stimulate intellectual interest and reasoning 
at the close of each unit. 

g. Practical applications at frequent intervals. 

h. Interesting captions to tasks, e.g. : Things to remember, 
Things to do, Things to read, Things to think about. 

i. Stimuli for the imaginative use of the information or skill 
under acquisition. 

Debates, letters of composition, dramatization. 

/. Interpretative illustrative material with provisions for 
studying the same. 



86 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

k. A comprehensive index. 

I. Pronouncing index, or (better) parenthetical pronunciation 
of unusual proper names. 

7. Mechanical Make-up. A good textbook should include a 
mechanical make-up based upon accepted standards of hygiene, 
art, design, adaptability to purpose, and upon sound prin- 
ciples of economic production, provided the last named should 
never be interpreted to mean that an inferior textbook be se- 
lected. 

Hygiene of Reading. Standards of typography have been 
evolved from such studies as those of Dearborn, of Huey, 
and others. The following is a preliminary arrangement of 
these standards compiled from the above-named sources : 
Standards in Page Typography. Length: 25 mm. — Maxi- 
mum, 90 mm. 

Advantages of these standards: 
No lateral movement required. 
Total motion \ as much as with longer lines. 
More words per fixation. 
Favors keeping what has been read. 
Eases eyestrain. 

Young children need shorter lines than adults. 
Height : 1.5 mm. — minimum. 

Thickness of vertical stroke : 0.25 — or at most 0.3 mm. 
Space within letter between vertical strokes is important, more 
so than space between letters: 0.3 to 0.5 mm. within; 
0.5 to 0.75 between. 
Color : black and white is better than any combination for the 

maximum amount of legibility per unit of space. 
Provision for the distinctness of the upper half of the letters 

hard to distinguish, e.g. : c and e ; t, i, 1 ; k, h ; z, o, s. 
Space between words, 2 mm. 

Space between lines : 2.5 mm. ; of no advantage if the type is 
undersize. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 87 

Standards for Younger Children: 
First year: type 2.6 mm. — leading 4.5 mm. 
Second year : type 2 mm. — leading 4 mm. 
Third year : type 2 mm. — leading 4 mm. 
Fourth year : type 1.8 mm. — leading 3.6 mm. 
8. General Suggestions. Changes in type, italicization, spacing — 
all add to getting at the gist of the matter, in that they utilize 
the indirect retinal field. 

There is a distinct advantage in picture printing and the growing 
utilization of graphic method. 

Range of words read per second — 2.5 to 9.8 (Dewey). 
Everything that increases legibility by increasing the difference 
between letters within the prescribed limits not only relieves eye- 
strain, but frees energy for the work of intelligence. 

Illustrations of Some of the Foregoing Principles in Textbook 
Making. History. The foregoing general principles are ex- 
cellently illustrated in Dickson's American History for 
Grammar Schools} 

1. A pupil who reads the opening Foreword is likely to 
desire intimate knowledge of what the author has to say about 
the wonderful New World discovered by Columbus. Being 
very brief and suggestive it may not be amiss to quote it here 
in full : 

Once upon a time, as the storybooks say, a great thing happened 
in this old world of ours. Perhaps you know already what this 
great event was, and will tell me that I mean the discovery of 
America. And if I ask how and when and by whom this discovery 
was made, perhaps you will be ready to tell me that, too. 

But you must remember that so great a thing as the discovery 
of a new world was not accomplished by one man alone, nor was it 

1 Macmillan, 1913. 



S8 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

accomplished in the single day when Columbus first saw land after 
his long voyage. Sometimes we think of it as if a great curtain 
had been rolled away from before the eyes of Columbus, disclosing 
the whole continent of America ; so that he had only to go home and 
tell the king of Spain that the New World was discovered. 

This is a very wrong idea. We must look back many years before 
the time of Columbus to find the beginning of the great work, and 
we must study on to a time many years after his death before we 
can say that Europe had really found America. Years of toil, 
great sums of money, the suffering and death of many brave men, 
were necessary before the work was done. And even then it took 
centuries more to find what the new continent was like, to settle 
it with white people, and to make it useful to the world. 

It is not one story, but many, that we must read, if we are to know 
how it all came about. We must read about old Europe and the 
people there before we can know about America and the new nations 
that were planted here by European hands. 

So let us set out upon our journey, following the white-winged 
ships on their voyage across the blue waters, from the Old World 
to the New. 

2. At the close of the chapter on " Holiday Happenings " in 
New Jersey the following directions of study seek to make the 
pupil's preparation of the material in the chapter definite and 
also fairly comprehensive. For example: 

THINGS TO REMEMBER 

i. The American army rapidly decreased in numbers; both 
soldiers and people were discouraged. 

2. Washington led his army across New Jersey, and across the 
Delaware into Pennsylvania. The British followed to the river, 
but stopped there for lack of boats. 

3. Washington recrossed the river, and attacked Trenton, 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 89 

capturing the thousand Hessians stationed there. Cornwallis 
hastened to Trenton, but Washington by another night retreat 
escaped, and proceeding to Princeton attacked and defeated two 
thousand of Cornwallis's men who were setting out to join him. 

4. Washington then made his way to the heights of Morristown 
where he was safe from attack. 

The author here gives a simple review, summarizing the 
salient points in the chapter, setting forth clearly and briefly 
just those facts that are important for a proper understanding 
of the next lesson. The child is not allowed to remain con- 
fused about these matters. The important points are im- 
pressed upon the pupil's mind while he is studying and not 
after he has appeared in class to recite. 

Following this section is an interesting list of reference 
material : 

THINGS TO READ 

i. The Story of the Revolution, Lodge, pp. 208-27. 

2. George Washington, Scudder, pp. 156-69. 

3. Hero Tales from American History, Lodge and Roosevelt, 
PP- 45-55, etc. 

Twelve such references are listed. It should be noted that 
the pages are given. The pupil is guided economically and 
definitely in this supplementary reading. The references, 
moreover, are of such a nature as naturally appeal to children 
of the upper grades. 

Following this set of directions the author supplies definite 
assignments : 

THINGS TO DO 

1. Find the meaning of enlistment, daunted, detachments, 
revelers, carousals, skirmishing parties, reinforcements, leisurely. 



90 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

2. Discuss the question: In what way did Washington show 
himself a great general in this campaign? 

3. Prepare yourself to write an answer to the question : What 
were the results of the New Jersey campaign? 

4. Think of words which you might use to describe each of the 
following persons: Washington, Lee, Howe, Cornwallis. 

5. For your portfolio : Leutze's Washington Crossing the Dela- 
ware, Ford's Washington at Trenton, Trumbull's Battle of Prince- 
ton. 

FOR YOUR NOTEBOOK 

1. Make a map to illustrate the New Jersey campaign. 

2. Make a " running outline" of the campaign. 

3. Write the statement for which you prepared in No. 3, above. 

At the end of each chapter these sets of directions appear 
in graded sequence, the author gradually leading the pupil 
to greater independence, and to more thoughtful studying. 
The textbook is practically a teacher. In the hands of a 
well-trained instructor it would become doubly valuable, for 
author and teacher would very definitely cooperate in guiding 
the young pupil to a clear understanding not only of each 
fact but of how these historical data belong to one another. 
The book is really a story of the development of the United 
States, a story that children are taught to appreciate. 

3. The pictorial illustrations are abundant, but not too nu- 
merous. They are in agreement with the text. At the close of 
the book is a large variety of illustrations of outline forms and 
also a clear chronological chart of discoveries and explorations. 

Vocational Mathematics. An interesting example of corre- 
lation in textbook making is furnished by William H. Dooley 
in his Vocational Mathematics. 1 In the chapter on " Measuring 

1 D. C. Heath and Co., 1915. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 91 

Lumber" (Chapter IV) the author gives a clear description of 
how wood is prepared for building purposes. In a few sen- 
tences the pupil is given an easily understood account of 
how a tree finally reaches the lumber yard where it becomes 
available for the carpenter. Then follow the necessary 
definitions, practical problems, and quick methods for measur- 
ing boards. 

The chapter on " Blanking and Cutting Dies " (Chapter VII) 
is equally interesting with its account of how dies are made, 
the process being well illustrated by several photographs and 
diagrams. Similar correlation is made use of in the section 
that deals with " Mathematics for Machinists." 

One finds that a textbook of this type has gone a long dis- 
tance beyond the formal and academic variety so common in 
our schools. The question naturally arises: Cannot every 
subject be organized along these lines ? Why do so few text- 
book makers fail to sense the need of illustrating their ma- 
terial by real life needs and life facts? 

Civic Biology. A striking textbook of the newer type has 
been written by George W. Hunter. His Civic Biology l 
is everything that its title implies. Its frontispiece arrests 
attention at once. The upper picture shows a crowded 
street scene in the slums of a large city. Below this is a 
photograph of a delightful home place in the country. The 
pictures do their own moralizing. In the discussion on 
" Plants without Chlorophyll in Their Relation to Man" the 
author treats " fungi," " fungi of our homes," " the growth 
of bread mold, etc.," " yeasts in their relation to man " (with 
several vital subtopics) and " bacteria in their relation to 
man." The pupil is in touch with life as he is acquainted 
1 The American Book Co., 19 14. 



92 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

with it, at least as he has seen it without perhaps understand- 
ing its deeper significance. Such a book is a guide to a 
better type of living. The teacher who uses this kind of 
book should not have much difficulty in awakening and 
keeping active the attention of every pupil. In fact, attention 
is secured whenever the pupil feels that the school task con- 
cerns his own life. One does not need to construct any scaf- 
folding to build up interest when the pupil senses that the 
teacher is dealing with topics that are common everyday 
affairs out there where boys and girls live and dress and play. 
Other Standards for Judging Textbooks. As an example of 
what is being attempted in judging the textbooks in the vari- 
ous subjects the following standards are given as formulated 
by Superintendent L. L. Forsythe of Ionia, Mich., together 
with others, who, with him, were studying this problem at 
Columbia University in the summer of 191 5. Like practi- 
cally all present standards in education it is chiefly suggestive 
and doubtless wholly tentative, but the interested teacher 
will find many of its items very helpful. 

SUGGESTIVE STANDARDS FOR ARITHMETIC TEXTS 

The Forsythe Plan 

GENERAL STATEMENT 

Textbooks in arithmetic should be judged with reference to 
the provision which they make for relating the child to the more 
important quantitative aspects of his life in society. 

SPECIFIC STANDARDS 

i. Each new phase in arithmetic should be developed as 
growing out of the interests, experience, and needs of the child. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 93 

The new phase of the subject will thus present itself as a problem 
or project of interest and value to him and will engage his efforts 
to master it. 

2. Provision should be made for the economical mastery of 
fundamental facts and processes. To this end the exercise of skill 
in the motivating of drill work and reviews should be demanded. 
An author who merely provides a series of exercises has met only 
the easier demands of his task. 

3. Provision should be made for the development of good 
judgment and clear reasoning power by the solution of problems 
which will appeal to the child as of value. The following sorts of 
problems should be considered here (these classes are not to be 
considered mutually exclusive). 

a. Problems of the home, playground, school, and social life. 

b. Problems growing out of dramatized life situations. 

c. Problems in which the child has to make a choice from 
among data not all of which are involved in the solution. 
This is usually the way in which problems are presented in 
real life. 

d. Problems in estimating heights, distances, weights, capacity, 
etc. 

e. Problems in which results are to be approximated, mainly 
as a check on accurate solutions to follow. 

/. Problems which are grouped about a single situation. 
g. Problems in which numbers are not involved. 
h. Problems with simple numbers which may be solved without 
the use of a pencil. 

4. Provision should be made in primary books especially for 
enlarging the child's fund of number concepts. 

5. Problems, processes, and topics should be excluded from texts 
when they cease to have a wide sanction in social usage; on the 
other hand, new topics, new processes, and new types of problems 
should be admitted to texts only after they have been subjected 
to this same test. 



94 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

6. The emphasis placed on the various phases of arithmetic 
included in the text should be in proportion to their probable value 
for the child. 

7. Textbooks in arithmetic should be adapted to the children 
for whom they are chosen. 

a. The type, illustrations, and language should be appropri- 
ate to the age of the children who will use the books. 

b. They should be examined with reference to any peculiar 
requirements not found in the average community. 

c. They should make provision for varying abilities among 
children of the same grade by the presentation of much 
easy material, as well as plenty of more difficult matter. 

8. Arithmetic texts should proceed by carefully graded steps 
from the easy to the more difficult, both in matter of processes 
treated and problems presented. 

a. The generally accepted distribution of topics by grades 
seems likely to persist because of its conformity to this de- 
mand and its agreement with important psychological facts. 

b. If the modified spiral method is followed in the treatment 
of certain topics (and it usually is), each successive 
recurrence to the topic should involve more difficult phases 
of it and a varied method of attack. 

9. Suggestions should be made for much supplementary work 
growing out of local interests. 

10. Provision should be made in the index for ready reference 
to important facts and topics scattered through the book. The 
appendix should be used for optional material, data for problems, 
tables, definitions, etc. These features are of special importance 
in the more advanced books. 

n. The teacher should be permitted some exercise of judgment 
where more than one course of procedure is possible in the matter 
of methods ; but too many methods of doing the same thing should 
be discouraged, as confusion is likely to result in the mind of the 
child. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 95 

12. Illustrations should make a substantial contribution to 
the work in hand. 

13. Textbooks in arithmetic should exemplify the highest 
standards of mechanical make-up as determined by experts. 

Mr. Forsythe devised the score card (Figure III) as a means 
of recording the valuations of a series of textbooks in arith- 
metic. Such a card might well be employed by school ad- 
ministrators and kept on file. It is clear, convenient, and 
definite. 

Cincinnati Standards in Arithmetic. Quite recently com- 
mittees on textbook recommendations in Cincinnati formu- 
lated sets of standards in the several subjects where adoptions 
were being considered. The general committee sent the fol- 
lowing note to the several subcommittees : 

The general committee in Textbooks is desirous of having an 
expression from the various subcommittees on the arithmetic 
texts you have examined. 

Without any intention to limit the subcommittees' consideration 
of the subject, the general committee submits the accompanying 
outline of points or topics which may be found useful as a guide to 
a systematic examination of the various texts. 

That the work may not be too burdensome, the general committee 
suggests that you list only the books which, in the judgment of 
your committee, compose the five best sets or series. 

The publishers have been requested by the Superintendent to 
send samples of their best publications to the Municipal Reference 
Bureau, City Hall, for your use. 

The standards in arithmetic were as follows : 

1. Textbooks in arithmetic should be judged with reference 
to the provision which they make for relating the child to the more 



9 6 



Textbook , i?0w to Use It and Judge It 



Score Card 


Standards in Outline 

(These should be interpreted by 

reference to full statement 

above.) 


Appor- 
tioned 
Value 
on Ba- 
sis of 
1000 
Points 


Texts Judged and Values Assigned 


(Titles to be inserted here) 


i. The problem form of 
development . . 


100 


1 










2. Skillful motivation of 
drill work and re- 


IS© 














3. The nature of the 
thought problems . 


250 














4. Provision for enlarge- 
ment of number 
concept .... 


25 














5. The exclusion of ob- 
solete material and 
worth of new ma- 


100 














6. Regard for relative 
value of topics in- 
cluded .... 
















7. Adaptability to chil- 
dren of the aver- 
age community 


75 














8. Easy grading of pro- 
cesses and prob- 
lems 


100 














9. Suggestions for work 
of local interest 


25 














10. Appendix and Index 


50 














11. Respect for judg- 
ment of the teacher 


25 














12. Relevancy of Illus- 
trations .... 


25 














13. Mechanical make-up 


25 















Figure III 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 97 

important number aspects of his life in society. The problem 
material should be made from social, economic, civic, industrial, 
geographical, and historical data from which the pupils learn 
valuable information and into which they put a keen interest. 

SPECIFIC STANDARDS 

2. The problem form of organization, i.e. each new phase in 
arithmetic should be approached and developed as a problem 
growing out of the interests, experiences, and needs of the child. 
How can the mastery of this process, formal or concrete, help me, 
as a pupil, to meet and solve a situation I am interested in? 

a. The following sorts of problems : those of the home, 
playground, school, social, and industrial life. 

b. There should be much material from which the child has 
to make a choice from among data not all of which are 
involved in the solution of the problem. 

c. Many problems may at times not involve numbers, but 
may present situations which demand explanation. 

3. The following material and processes are considered obsolete 
and are largely eliminated by most texts and courses of study of the 
last ten years : 

a. The horizontal placing of numbers in the various processes. 

b. The old form of placing the quotient in division, with the 
old continued method of pointing off in division of decimals. 

c. Greatest common divisor and least common multiple. 

d. Unreal, simple and complex fractions. 

e. Reduction in denominate numbers of more than three 
places. 

/. Rules and explanations for processes not to be explained in 
light of modern authority, as inverting and multiplying in 
the division of fractions. 

g. Formula and rules of methods in percentage. 

h. Troy and Apothecaries' Weight. 



98 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

i. Longitude and Time with more than 15 degrees unit. 

7. True Discount. 

k. Partial Payments. 

I. Annual and Compound Interest. 

m. Foreign Exchange. 

n. Equation of Payments. 

0. Cube Root. 

p. Topical plan of arrangement. 

4. Children's interests and activity should be provided for in 
the way of number games, construction work, etc. Work in the 
fundamentals should grow out of such material. 

5. Pictorial aids. Illustrative pictures; diagrams, tables, 
graphs ; devices should be numerous. 

6. Excellence of drill. Frequency. A large factor is the amount 
of motivated drill work. 

7. Provision for individual differences of pupils. There is a 
growing need for this. There should be a minimum for all ; but 
provision should also be made for additional work for brighter 
pupils. 

Klapper's Standards in Arithmetic. An excellent state- 
ment of the qualities of a good textbook in arithmetic is given 
by Klapper. 1 (1) The text must first of all be graded so that 
its language, forms of exercises, explanations, and definitions 
may be suited to the progressive stages of the course. No one 
book can adequately supply this need. The bulky Complete 
Arithmetic must be replaced by a series of books, each book 
covering the work of a grade. (2) A satisfactory text in 
arithmetic is rich with a variety of well-graded exercises and 
forms of application. It is quite impossible for the teacher 
to find time to make such collections of exercises. The author 
of the text is expected to make the book practical along these 

1 Teaching of Arithmetic. D. Appleton Co., 1916; p. 68-70. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 99 

lines. (3) These exercises must be adapted to the needs of 
changing localities. No one text can be comprehensive enough 
to meet all the needs that may arise. Consequently standard 
texts are adapted to local conditions. (4) The problems 
must also be designed for both oral and written solution. (5) 
It probably is best to furnish the pupils with answers to the 
problems. These answers help him to check his work and 
to test its accuracy. The answer stimulates effort and may 
serve to evolve a mode of solving the problem. (6) A good 
textbook in arithmetic, furthermore, gives clear and simple 
explanatory statements of new matters, diagrammatic illus- 
trations of quantitative relations, a complete index, and such 
additional directions as will help the pupil to help himself. 

Smith's Standards. Writing on this subject, David Eu- 
gene Smith 1 says that the kind of textbook which the world 
has found most usable, and probably rightly so, is that which 
possesses these elements : (1) A sequence of propositions 
which is not only logical, but psychological ; not merely one 
which will work theoretically, but one in which the arrange- 
ment is adapted to the mind of the pupil ; (2) exactness of 
statement, avoiding such slipshod expressions as, " A circle is 
a polygon of an infinite number of sides," " Similar figures are 
those with proportional sides and equal angles," without other 
explanation ; (3) proofs given in a form which shall be a model 
of excellence for the pupil to pattern after; (4) abundant 
exercises from the beginning, with practical suggestions as 
to methods of attacking them ; (5) propaedeutic work in the 
form of questions or exercises, inserted long enough before the 
propositions concerned to demand thought; that is, not 
immediately preceding the author's proof. 

1 The Teaching of Elementary Mathematics. Macmillan, 1903. 



ioo Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Geometry. — A series of considerations relative to deter- 
mining merits of textbooks in geometry have been offered by 
David Eugene Smith. 1 He writes : 

It becomes necessary in weighing the merits of a textbook 
to consider : 

i. If the number of proved propositions is reduced to a safe 
minimum ; 

2. If there is reasonable opportunity to apply the theory, the 
actual applications coming best, however, from the teacher as an 
outside interest ; 

3. If there is an abundance of material in the way of simple 
exercises, since such material is not so readily given by the teacher 
as the seemingly local applications of the propositions to outdoor 
measurements ; 

4. If the book gives a reasonable amount of introductory work 
in the use of simple and inexpensive instruments, not at that 
time emphasizing the formal side of the subject ; 

5. If there is afforded some opportunity to see the recreative 
side of the subject, and to know a little of the story of geometry 
as it has developed from ancient to modern times. 

He quotes from Proclus as follows : 

It is essential that such treatise should be rid of everything 
superfluous, for the superfluous is an obstacle to the acquisition of 
knowledge ; it should select everything that embraces the subject, 
brings it to a focus, for this is of the highest service to science; 
it must have great regard both to clearness and to conciseness, 
for their opposites trouble our understanding; it must aim to 
generalize its theorems, for the division of knowledge into small 
elements renders it difficult of comprehension. 

1 The Teaching of Geometry. Ginn, 191 1, p. 71. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 101 

The entire Chapter VII in Smith's book deserves careful 
study by teachers of geometry. Examples of recent texts 
in Geometry are given at the close of Chapter IX. 

Illustrations of Modern Texts in Arithmetic. Among the 
several texts that apply many of the foregoing principles 
are the books of the Walsh-Suzzallo series. 1 The books are 
well graded, and have an abundance of " real " problems. 
A striking feature of these books is the " boxing in " of ex- 
planatory material or model examples, a device that eliminates 
visual confusion. The pages are attractive in type compo- 
sition. The least attractive part of the series is the color of 
the covers. One gets the impression that the book is unduly 
cheap looking. No answers are provided. 

The Gilbert Arithmetics 2 contain a large selection of practical 
exercises. The printing is clear but the page seems crowded. 
A unique feature of the series is the summary at the end of 
each chapter, given in outline form. Valuable examples of 
mechanical drawing are given in the chapter on denominate 
numbers. 

Texts in General Mathematics. Nowhere is the tendency 
to break away from traditional program-making so well il- 
lustrated as in the organization of general courses in mathe- 
matics and in science. More texts seem to have appeared in 
general science than in general mathematics. Teachers in 
these fields are not universally convinced that the new courses 
based on correlation and careful evaluation of material will 
prove as effective as what appears to be the more thorough- 
going procedure of the traditional organizations of courses 
in these fields. There are many teachers, however, who are 
definitely committed to the newer type of courses. Educa- 

X D. C. Heath & Co., 1914. 2 Macmillan, 1913. 



102 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

tional psychology and economic considerations provide abun- 
dant reasons for the development of traditional high school 
mathematics and science into the organizations now being 
tested. In this connection it is worth while to remind ourselves 
that one of the fundamental weaknesses of our present type 
of program of study on every level of the school system, in- 
cluding the college, is the lack of coordination or correlation 
between the several courses, wherever such correlation is mani- 
festly patent. Any attempt to unify educational material 
deserves the cordial attention of every teacher concerned. 

Perhaps the most notable scheme of correlation in the 
field of mathematics is that evolved by Ernest R. Breslich. 
His three volumes on First, Second, and Third Year mathe- 
matics, respectively, demonstrate the possibilities and advan- 
tages of the new conception of teaching this large subject. 
There is at least unconscious assent among bookmen to the 
truth that the ideal textbook must be the cooperative work 
of individuals who are subject experts, and who are well 
trained in the psychology of the learning process and in the 
application of the principles that properly control the learning 
of a subject. To write a textbook wholly from the standpoint 
of the logical analysis of the subject-matter may produce a 
very learned and comprehensive treatment of the subject, 
but, on the other hand, this very mode of textbook construc- 
tion may be wholly unsuitable for the arousing of interest, 
for the prevention of unnecessary difficulties and confusion, 
and for the development of a mathematical consciousness that 
leads to a continuous and well-motivated pursuit of this sub- 
ject. 

The pupil in the high school is naturally prejudiced against 
mathematics. It is needlessly difficult, because it is vaguely 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 103 

presented and rigorously developed in its segregated forms. 
Algebra is wholly isolated from geometry and the teacher in 
neither course makes use of the large amount of related 
material at his disposal. Consequently the pupil's early 
knowledge of mathematics is narrow, confused, bookishly 
abstract, and formal. One need not wonder over the an- 
tagonism that has been quickened by this type of education. 
Mr. Breslich has succeeded in organizing a general math- 
ematics course that is both psychological and administratively 
practicable. He has had the pupil very clearly in mind in 
each course. There are numerous directions for studying 
the various units of the subject. Model solutions are copious, 
but at the same time well-motivated provisions for inde- 
pendent studying abound in the three volumes. Photographs 
of various kinds of construction work are introduced as illus- 
trations of the practical value of geometry. The many ex- 
ercises are astonishingly real ; they touch life at almost every 
point. Their abundance and variety make citations difficult. 
The following may serve to illustrate how Mr. Breslich has 
kept the high school pupil in mind : 

The length of the school hall is I feet. I go through the hall 6 
times on Monday, 8 times on Tuesday, 4 times on Wednesday, 
6 times on Thursday, and 10 times on Friday. How many feet do 
I travel along the hall during the week ? (First Year Mathematics, 1 
P. 25.) 

The running track in the playground is y yards. While in 
training, I run around it 6 times on Monday, 8 times on Tuesday, 
10 times on Wednesday, 12 times on Thursday, and 14 times on 
Friday. How many yards do I run during the week? (Ibid.) 

At noon a thermometer read 3 below o°. In the evening it 

1 The Chicago Press. 



104 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

was 8° warmer. How many degrees did the thermometer read 
in the evening? {Ibid., p. 185.) 

A boy wishes to know how far it is from the shore of a lake 
at A to an island, B, Fig. 122 at C, 20 yd. from A on the line BA. 
He lays off CDA-CB and CD = 60 rods. At A he constructs a line 
perpendicular to AB meeting DB at E. By measuring he finds 
AE = 50 rods. Find the required distance. (Second Year 
Mathematics, p. 113.) 

A contractor needs 40,500 bricks for a building. His experience 
has shown that usually 3.5 per cent are spoiled. How many 
bricks must he order? (Ibid., p. 215.) 

The size of a man's hat is indicated by the number of inches in 
the diameter of a circle of length equal to the distance measured 
around the head where his hat rests. What size of hat does a man 
need, the distance around whose head is 2 2f inches ? (Ibid., p. 298.) 

A trunk 30 in. long is just large enough to permit an umbrella 
36 in. long to lie diagonally on the bottom. How much must the 
length of the trunk be increased if it is to accommodate, diagonally, a 
gun 4 in. longer than the umbrella ? (Third Year Mathematics, p. 83.) 

Originally the great pyramid of Cheops was 480 ft. 9 in. high 
and the side of the square base was 764 ft. long. Owing to the 
removal of coating the measurements are now 746 ft. and 460 ft. 
respectively. How much stone has been removed ? (Ibid., p. 289.) 

Among the other attractive features of these books are 
the summaries at the close of the chapters, a study device 
that has obvious advantages. Historical notes, portraits of 
famous mathematicians, and brief biographical sketches lend 
ornamentation and human interest to the course. The last 
chapter of Third Year Mathematics is a syllabus of all the 
theorems of plane and solid geometry studied in the first two 
years. By this provision the pupil finds reference material 
and direction in reviewing. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 105 

Qualities of Textbooks in Chemistry and Physics. In 

writing on the principles governing instruction in these sub- 
jects Smith and Hall * write that the book should give a plain 
account of the subject without too much pedagogical pre- 
tense. It should be accurate in its statements and present 
a view of science as closely approximating that of the scientist 
as may be possible in an elementary course. The common 
elements and not too many compounds should be studied. 
Works of reference should be consulted. The spirit of the 
book should be inductive, the laws really forming summaries 
of facts which have been considered. Theories must find 
their place as related to facts and should follow, not precede, 
the study of the facts. The general treatment should be 
connected, logical, lucid, making evident the unity of the 
subject. 

General chemistry should be treated as a pure science, 
and not as an arrangement introducing analysis. Formulae 
should be kept in their proper places and shown to be recep- 
tacles for the results of the study of each action. They are 
not to be considered as ends of the subject. Careful ex- 
planations should be made as to how facts are translated into 
formulae. 

In general it may be said regarding all textbooks in scientific 
subjects that they should be carefully evaluated according to 
the capacities and needs of the various grades in the school. 
This means that only basal material should be considered. 
Confusion of many details should correspondingly be avoided. 
Many technical names are equally undesirable. Illustrations 
should deal with practical applications as far as possible. 
Problems should introduce the pupil to his own community, 

1 The Teaching of Chemistry and Physics. Longmans, 1904, p. 185. 



106 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

and then to a wider range of interests, care being taken, how- 
ever, not to overemphasize home application. 

Geography Standards in Cincinnati. The committee on 
textbooks in Cincinnati composed the following standards 
for books on geography: 

i. Quality of Home Geography material. More remote geo- 
graphical ideas and concepts are based upon immediate ex- 
perience. Rich descriptions of how peoples struggle for the 
necessities of life and of their everyday industry and intercourse 
should make definitional geography purely secondary. Land and 
water physical features should be treated from the standpoint of 
their effects on man's life. 

2. Up-to-dateness of data. Statistical data, political and pro- 
duction maps and charts should be recent and clear. 

3. Fullness of type study. Typical industrial activities of 
sections, rich descriptive matter, used as a means to an end for 
holding pupils' interest and fixing the necessary place location 
facts, should characterize geographical textbooks. 

4. Good habits of study. These should be provided for by 

a. Directions in how to study, together with real problem 
topics, questions, and suggestions. 

b. Good organization of subject-matter, matter of appeal- 
ing interest to children and not disconnected facts that 
might appeal to the more adult mind. 

c. Closely associated matter so that there is a natural progress 
from lesson to lesson. 

d. Frequent reviews and comparisons with our own country. 

5. Well-graded material. Is there a proper division of material, 
as to kind and quantity, between primary and advanced books, 
with new material for each grade ? 

6. Life consequences. A study of earth conditions as they affect 
man in his social, political, and economic life is the real mission 
of geography. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 107 



Standards for Readers. The bewildering number of pub- 
lications in this field makes the selection of a suitable series 
all the more complex. The following standards recently 
used in Cincinnati and in Decatur suggest valuable modes of 
procedure. 



1. Thought 



2. Form . 



I. Content 

a. Rich in variety. 

b. Arranged in series ; seasonal, social, ethical, civic, etc. 
<, c. Adapted to needs of pupil and community. J 

d. Literary style and quality. 

e. Well-arranged and systematic development of phonics. 
a. Vocabulary arranged to secure sufficient repetition yet 

without sacrifice of thought. 

< T TT , , „ , , ( Within each book. 

J b. Vocabulary well graded | WitMn each series> 

[ c. Paragraphing. 



1. Binding . . 

2. Type . . . 

3. Lines . . . 

4. Illustrations. 



II. Mechanical Make-up 

' a. Durability. 
b. Attractiveness. 

c PaDer ( Quality ' 

p \ Gloss — lacking. 

f a. Size. 

I b. Clearness. 

[ c. Width of leading. 

f a. Arrangement of lines, so that natural word groups are 

J not broken. 

{a. At top or bottom, or on separate page. 

b. Attractive, clear, simple, and full of action. 

c. Educative and suitable for grades. 



In Decatur, Illinois, the following sets of standards were 
employed in 191 5 in judging readers. 



CHARACTER OF CONTENTS 

1. Provision for variety of motive. 

2. Provision for organization of ideas. 



108 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

3. Provision for discovery of relative values. 

4. Provision for initiative by pupils. 

5. Gradation in regard to interests and experiences of pupils. 

6. Does content afford opportunities for different children to 
find some relation to their own peculiar interest or experiences ? 

7. Can the children enter into the atmosphere of the stories? 

8. Does the subject-matter appeal to the child's love, humor, 
imagination, activity, reason? 

9. Do the lessons furnish a stimulus to further thought? 

10. Does the text help in forming a foundation for the apprecia- 
tion of literature ? 

11. Does the text carry a sustained interest? 

12. Does the text have some material adapted for special days, 
dramatizations, and varied types of reading? 

13. Is there opportunity for varied and natural expression? 

14. Are the lessons isolated, grouped, or continuous? 

15. Will the text tend to produce eager, independent readers? 

16. How many pages are not adapted for use by all the children ? 

VOCABULARY 

1. Gradation in regard to work difficulty, sentence structure, 
mechanical arrangement on page. 

2. Are the lessons of suitable length? 

3. Are the words, phrases, and sentences of the first half of 
the primer easy and natural for the beginners ? 

4. Are the words used in the text those needed in the child's 
everyday vocabulary, and in reading supplementary readers? 

5. Can new words be mastered largely through the context? 

6. Does the reading matter lend itself to word grouping? 

7. Does the vocabulary increase slowly enough? 

8. Does the text sufficiently increase the child's vocabulary? 

9. Is provision made for motivated reviews? 

10. Is repetition provided at ever-increasing intervals? 



The* Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 109 

11. Is there sufficiently frequent repetition of words in different 
relations to each other to assure recognition? 

12. Is there too much repetition so that memory is depended 
upon rather than word recognition? 

13. Is the material so organized that a thorough phonic course 
may be formed leading to independent reading? 

14. Does the text tend to strong word mastery? 

METHOD HELPS 

1. Is there a gradual progression through the series? 

2. Is the teacher helped to grow in ability to get intelligent 
expressive reading from the classes ? 

3. What suggestions are made for helping the pupil when he 
does not know the needed word ? 

4. Which makes the best provisions for drills ? 

5. Does the subject-matter lend itself to good habits of study? 

6. Is there enough material for independent seat work? 

7. Can the inexperienced teacher get good results from the 
use of this text? 

8. Does the text open opportunities for growth in method to 
the experienced teacher ? 

9. Is adequate help given the second- and third-grade teachers ? 
10. What provision is made for voice training? 

MAKE-UP OF THE BOOK 

i. Is the book attractive? 

2. Will it stand the wear and tear of daily use? 

3. Are the illustrations artistic, suggestive, and of educative 
worth ? 

4. Are they well arranged? 

5. Are the type and page arrangement well adapted to the 
particular grade for which the book is intended? 



no Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

6. Is the book convenient as to size, weight, and flexibility of 
binding ? 

Standards in Spelling and Language. In Phcenixville, 
Pa., under the direction of Superintendent Isaac Dough- 
ton, a successful method of selecting textbooks has been em- 
ployed. The superintendent examined a large number of 
spellers and then asked the teachers who taught spelling from 
the third grade up to examine six of the books that seemed to 
him the best suited to the needs of the pupils. These books 
were to be arranged in the order of choice as first, second, etc. 
The books were then scored by the following plan : 

For factors of scoring the order was inverted; that is, every 
choice was scored six points, every second choice, five, and so on 
to the sixth choice, which was scored one point. In spite of the 
instruction given to rate every book, some teachers gave only the 
first, second, and third choice, or rated only four books. In such 
cases the remaining possible scores were totaled and distributed 
equally among the books not reported. On account of the cen- 
tralization of the seventh and eighth grades the score was tabu- 
lated separately for the first six grades, and the average rank 
of the six texts was determined. Then to make the final choice, 
this average rating was scored in the same way and given a 
scoring power of two, the rating of the seventh- and eighth-grade 
teacher was given a scoring power of one and the superintend- 
ent's own rating was given a scoring power of two. On the basis 
of this final score the final rating was determined and the choice 
made. 

Table IV indicates the results of the teachers' judgments 
in some detail. 

The divergence of opinion is accounted for largely by the 
fact that each teacher was concerned only with the books of 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 



in 



I. Teachers' Judgments of Spelling Texts 
TABLE IV 





Book A 


BookB 


BookC 


Book D 


Book E 


BookF 






1) 
M 

o 

U 

CO 


rj c/1 

a 


a 




CO 


as 


u 

M 

O 
<J 
CO 


CD C 

ss 




M 

O 

u 

CO 


in C 


B 

O 
u 

CO 


Q O 

H 


O 
u 

CO 








I 


6 


1 


6 


6 


36 






3 


18 










5 


25 


2 


10 


1 


5 






1 


5 


Third . 




I 


4 


3 

1 


12 

3 


2 

4 


8 
12 


2 
2 


8 
6 


3 
2 


12 
6 


2 








6 


Fifth . . 




5 


IO 






1 


2 










3 


6 


Sixth . 




4 

i 


4 
3-5 


1 


3.5 










5 

T 


5 
3-5 


1 
1 


1 


Extra 


3-5 


Combined 


Score of 


























Teachers, 


Grades 


























III-VI 


. . . . 




21.5 




49-5 




38.5 




55 




26.5 




39-5 



The left side of each double column indicates the number of teachers who 
selected the particular book for the particular choice ; the right side indicates 
the score, found by multiplying this number by the "factor." The factors 
were as follows : First choice, 6 ; second, 5 ; third, 4 ; fourth, 3 ; fifth, 2 ; and 
sixth, 1. 

her grade, while the superintendent was interested in the books 
of all the grades. The other tables give the results in a more 
summarized form. 

II. Combined Tabulation of Scores 
TABLE V 





Book 

a 


Book 
B 


Book 
C 


Book 
D 


Book 
E 


Book 
F 


Average Rank of Teachers, Grades 

III-VI 

Rank, Grades VII-VIII . . . 


6 
6 
6 


2 
5 
3 


3 
4 
5 


1 

3 

1 


5 
2 

4 


4 

2 

I 



ii2 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 



III. Final Scores: Textbooks 
TABLE VI 



Twice Average Score, Grades III 

to VI 

Score, Grades VII to VIII . . . 

Twice Supt. Score 

Total Score 

Final Rank 



Book 


Book 


Book 


Book 


Book 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


2 


IO 


8 


12 


4 


I 


2 


3 


4 


5 


2 


8 


4 


12 


6 


5 


20 


15 


28 


15 


6 


3 


4 


(I) 


5 



Book 
F 



6 

6 

10 

22 

2 



A similar procedure was followed in selecting textbooks in 
language. Textbook " D " was finally chosen. 

Superintendent Doughton finds that this method has several 
advantages, especially in smaller districts. In the first place 
every teacher's vote affects the result. (2) The plan is flexi- 
ble since the scoring ability of each group of teachers and of 
the superintendent may be made anything one pleases as the 
size of the groups and the distribution of responsibility may 
suggest. (3) The final choice is a composite in which every 
person concerned has had opportunity to influence the results. 
The superintendent is able to check up his own judgment and 
that of his teachers in a fairly measurable manner. 

The Cincinnati committee devised the following standards 
in spelling and language. 

Spelling. 1. The words listed should be those which in- 
vestigations have shown pupils will need most in their written work 
at school and after they leave school. 

2. Provision should be made for frequent review of words 
commonly misspelled. 

3. Words should be listed so as to economize effort in teaching, 
i.e. grouped as to roots, prefixes, suffixes, etc. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 113 

4. Suggestions to teachers should offer means of presenting 
words with a strong initial appeal, for analyzing difficulties, for 
discovering types of errors and for following up spelling difficul- 
ties in all written work. 

5. Diacritical marks should be used sufficiently to make children 
self-helpful in consulting the dictionary. 

6. Dictation exercises should receive due attention. 
Language. 1. Extent to which the text suggests varied motives 

and touches a variety of children's interests as a basis for oral 
and written language. 

2. Extent to which oral work is made preparatory to written 
work. 

3. Extent to which original story work, letter writing, and con- 
versations prevail in the types of work presented. 

4. Extent to which the books develop appreciation of good 
literature, enrich vocabulary, and improve diction. 

5. Extent to which the content arouses and sustains pupils' 
interest. 

6. Extent to which the plan of the books develops correct use 
of idioms through eye, ear, and voice, forming correct habits from 
the beginning. 

7. Extent to which grammatical forms are made to grow out 
of immediate needs and are applied to new work. 

8. Extent to which formal grammar is reduced to the low- 
est terms compatible with an explanation of everyday Eng- 
lish. 1 

Suggestive Standards for History Texts. Wayland 2 out- 
lines a brief scheme for judging history texts. Its points are 
well selected and if observed should result in a discriminative 
choice of textbooks in this subject. 

1 Journal of School Administration and Supervision. April, 1918. 

2 How to Teach American History. Macmillan, 1914. 

I 



ii4 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

OUTLINE FOR REVIEWING A TEXTBOOK IN HISTORY 

i. Name of author ; exact title; name of publisher ; place and 
date of publication. 

2. Your acquaintance with the book. Have you used the book 
as a student or as a teacher, or as both ; or have you only given it 
a hasty reading? 

3. The historical veracity of the book. — Is it accurate and fair ? 

4. Proportion of parts. — Are the topics well selected, and is 
the emphasis well placed? 

5. The literary style. — Is it clear and interesting? 

6. Maps and illustrations. 

7. Teaching helps, bibliographies, index. 

8. General appearance and make-up. 

9. Adaptability. — Does it suit your grade or your class? 

To these qualifications should be added : clear ideas, simple 
style, subject-matter so apportioned that the emphasis will be 
laid on recent history (for texts in modern and in American 
history), good character sketches, a good treatment of economic 
and social events, and a list of references that is definite and 
fairly accessible to the pupil. 

Henry Bourne x mentions several characteristics of a good 
textbook that emphasize some of the foregoing points. In 
the first place it should be written by a competent scholar. 
(2) It must rest upon a close acquaintance with the problem 
of instruction. (3) It should not be overloaded with many 
details, although it should be a book of facts, not of ready- 
made judgments which will prevent the pupil from con- 
sulting other books. (4) Its pages should not be sprinkled 
with dates. A distinction should be made between those 
which are inserted for the sake of precision and others which 

1 The Teaching of History and Civics. Longmans, 1903 ; pp. 157-161. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 115 

are to be committed to memory. (5) There must be abun- 
dant maps. (6) Instructive illustrations. The artist's draw- 
ing, if carefully done, has a certain educational value. If a 
portrait of an individual is used, that which represents him 
at the time when his career is most interesting to history 
should be chosen. Many of the pictures of historical char- 
acters were taken at an advanced age whereas they were young 
when engaged in historical events. (7) A few genealogical 
tables. 

Illustrations of history texts will be found in subsequent 
chapters. 

Textbooks in Foreign Language. The current antagonism 
toward the dominant role played by Latin in the high schools 
and colleges of our country is not altogether the traditional 
opposition of the practical toward the cultural in education. 
There are many opponents of Latin, as it is frequently taught, 
who sincerely believe that this subject has educational value 
and a cultural purpose sufficiently large to justify almost 
any student in devoting at least two years to its study. The 
main criticism, aside from that directed against the amount 
of time demanded for Latin by its teachers, concerns the 
technic of teaching it. And this objection includes a criti- 
cism of a certain type of Latin texts. A glance through two 
of these books, selected quite at random, will indicate their 
laudable and less praiseworthy features. 

The first is Caesar's Gallic War, Books I-IV '} Little need 
be said about the mechanical aspect of the book. The print- 
ing is clear, neat, and adequately differentiated to set forth 
special points for study. The volume consists of two parts, 
the first dealing with Books I and II, which are to be studied 
1 Ernst Riess and Arthur L. James. American. Book Co., 191 4. 



n6 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

in detail. The second part includes Books III and IV, ar- 
ranged for sight reading. At the end of the first part are 
elaborate notes, a grammatical summary dealing especially 
with points occurring in the text, a word list, and exercises 
in prose composition. Part Two is also supplied with notes, 
but these are given at the bottom of each page so that the 
pupil, while reading at sight, may have ready reference to 
the helpful suggestions in these notes. At the close of the 
whole text are a brief discussion of word formation, an index 
of proper names, and the usual vocabularies. At convenient 
intervals and as illustrations of descriptions of battle for- 
mation are colored diagrams and maps, artistic in appearance 
and effective for a correct visualizing of the scenes described 
in the contents. 

The Introduction has a valuable essay on Caesar and the 
Roman army, with helpful illustrations. 

One looks in vain, however, for any statement of the 
educational value of the book. The pupil is not told why he 
is invited to labor over the war correspondence of Caesar. 
The book supplies in brief sentence form a descriptive head- 
ing in English of the several sections, but nowhere do the 
authors give a summary in outline form of the contents. 
The pupil will translate haltingly and in wretched English, 
and at the close will have probably only a very confused 
understanding of what all this strange jumble of words really 
means. One may well question the genuine educational 
value of such procedure. So far as the author is aware there 
is no text in Caesar that provides at the beginning of each 
book a well- written summary of the contents. Such a trans- 
lation (free and beautiful) would give the pupil a background 
for his own translation. A summary of this sort would not 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 117 

unduly facilitate translation, for word and sentence structure 
still require adequate rendering into English. After the 
pupil has been painstakingly accurate, and even while he is 
analyzing the various paragraphs, he should be conscious of a 
general meaning that will sustain interest and properly facili- 
tate the understanding of what he reads. The Summary 
would provide this needful background. 

Excellent as are the maps it would add to their interest 
for the pupil if in colored outline Gallic territory as it is 
to-day, with English equivalents, appeared on each map. 
Some of this material is given in the notes. 

The text would have additional value if at the close of each 
book the authors gave a list of suggestions for study, includ- 
ing review questions that would clinch the meaning of the 
various passages, make clearer the images of the scenes 
described, and more easily recall the several points of interest 
emphasized by Caesar. Such directions for study would 
really illumine the course and make its progress cultural and 
also practical in the best sense of this word. 

In Virgil's JEneid 1 there is a quite different approach. 
The authors' preface quickly wins interest for the, book and 
seldom does one find an Introduction so satisfying as the one 
in this text. After several pages devoted to an account of 
Virgil's life and works, there is a carefully written essay on 
the literary value of the Mneid, an analysis of each of the 
six books, and a study of the character and personality of 
iEneas. Extracts from syntax, rhetoric, and prosody are 
also given. The authors show a sweet reasonableness in giv- 
ing a translation of the first thirty- three lines. This is done 
because these verses are generally considered the most dif- 
1 H. R. Fairclough and Selden Brown. Benjamin H. Sanborn & Co., 1914. 



n8 Textbook, Bow to Use It and Judge It 

ficult for the pupil to translate. Tennyson's tribute to Virgil 
closes the Introduction. 

If the teacher gives faithful attention to this preliminary 
material in one or two assignments through the medium of 
a Lesson in Appreciation, the pupil will doubtless approach the 
more technical work of the course with considerable enthu- 
siasm. His studying, moreover, will be definite, for the authors 
give notes and questions at the close of each book, suggestions 
that form excellent means of reviewing and enriching the 
several units of the course. 

An outline of each book with the place occupied by each 
character, diagrams of the plot, and references to the influ- 
ence of the various books on English literature would indicate 
how the course might be correlated with English literature 
and history. 

Various Standards Summarized. A Suggestive Summary 
of qualities of good textbooks in a variety of subjects is made 
by T. Raymont : * 

A good teacher of younger scholars will usually select that text- 
book of arithmetic or algebra which consists simply of a copious, 
varied, and systematic series of exercises. He will prefer that all 
explanatory and demonstrative matter should form the subject of 
oral lessons, he will help his pupils to make their own summaries of 
facts and principles, and he will resent any division into "lessons" 
as an unwarrantable intrusion upon the individual teacher's prov- 
ince. The exercises should be sufficient not only for a first 
course, but also for subsequent revision; the book will not be 
worked straight through, as if it were a story book, but the teacher 
will pick out such samples as will best serve his purpose at the time. 
In short, the book will be the teacher's servant, not his master. 

1 Principles of Education. Longmans, Green and Co., 1913, pp. 272, 273. 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 119 

The choice of a textbook in geometry will, of course, depend, in 
the first instance, upon the teacher's special views as to the content 
and sequence of the course ; but he will in any case require that the 
figures be bold and well-drawn, that the steps of the proof be clearly 
arranged, and that due limits be placed upon abbreviations of 
geometrical language. Here again he will be satisfied with the 
usual systematic arrangement. Though he will not require all 
the axioms and definitions to be swallowed at the outset, he will 
not object to their being neatly brought together, to be referred to 
as occasion arises. 

The one indispensable textbook of geography is, for beginners, 
a collection of pictures, and for older pupils, a collection of diagrams 
and maps, which should not be crowded with unnecessary names,, 
and should be printed with merciful regard to the scholar's eye- 
sight. . . . Similarly the best supplement to a course of lessons 
in history is a " skeleton outline " of the chief events, chronologically 
arranged, and so forming a temporal scheme which shall aid the 
memory and be on hand for reference. For the rest, the teacher 
of geography and history will prefer to rely on his own powers of 
description and narration, and on the contents of the school 
library. 

In the teaching of natural science, books will play a still less 
important part. A brief summary of facts and principles such as 
might be given in the form of notes, is the utmost that is needed ; 
unless the subject demands the solution of numerical problems, 
in which case a collection of these may be useful. . . . 

A school grammar should make the essentials absolutely clear, 
and relegate all exceptional formations and constructions to appen- 
dices and footnotes. The use of a vocabulary is a convenient 
stepping stone to that of a dictionary. 

Summary. The judging of textbooks is so often a hap- 
hazard and ill-defined process that all concerned need to co- 
operate in constructing standards that will greatly aid the 



120 Textbook , -How to Use It and Judge It 

judge in this important matter. Generally speaking, a text- 
book should be well and clearly printed, i.e. printed in ac- 
cord with the needs of the stage of development, physically 
and mentally, of school children. It should be mechanically 
attractive and effective both in illustrations, binding, and 
general arrangement of the contents. The material should be 
graded, new words carefully defined on the page where they 
occur, statements made accurately, and the literary style 
simple and direct so that the pupils can easily understand 
them. Rules and exceptions should be printed in different 
type. 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. How are textbooks and supplementary books adopted in 
your school system? 

2. What procedure is followed by individuals assigned the criti- 
cal examination of proposed texts in your school? Does the 
teacher have any real responsibility in the selection of texts? 

3. How would you improve upon the criteria or standards for 
judging textbooks, as illustrated in this chapter? What method 
might be used in constructing standards more objective than those 
cited in this chapter? 

4. To what extent are the criteria used in your school merely 
conventional, and to what extent are they determined by a careful 
study of the textbook itself, its organization of subject-matter, 
its mechanical arrangement, etc. ? 

5. How do the texts that you now use conform to the stand- 
ards stated in this chapter? 

6. How often are textbooks changed in your school system? 
Is this often enough? What should determine the frequency of 
change in textbooks? 



The Selecting and Judging of Textbooks 121 

REFERENCES 

Cockerell, T. D. A. " Textbooks and Reviewing." Science. Vol. 34 : 
561, 2, Oct. 27, 1911. 

Dearborn, W. F. " The Psychology of Reading." Archives of Philoso- 
phy, Psychology and Science, No. 4, 1906. 

Dockery, F. C. " Span of Vision in Reading and the Legibility of 
Letters." Journal of Educational Psychology. Vol. 1 : 123-31. 

Fitzpatrick, F. A. " Bookman and the Textbook Problem." N. E. A. 
. Proceedings, 191 2. Pp. 449-55. 
" Bookman and His Relation to the Textbook Problem." Educa- 
tional Review. Vol.43: 282-91; March, 1912. 

Huey, E. B. The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. Macmillan; 
1908. 

Jessup and Coffman. The Supervision of Arithmetic. Macmillan; 
1916; Ch. IX. 

" Quality and Cost of Textbooks." Journal of Education. Vol. 81 : 
681-3; June 24, 191 5. 

Karapetoff, V. " Are Teachers Entitled to Complimentary Desk Cop- 
ies of Technical Books?" Science. Vol. 35: 452-4; March 22, 
1912. 

Meddleton, G. " Textbook Game and Its Quarry." Bookman. Vol. 
33: 141-7; April, 191 1. 

Monroe, Paul. Encyclopedia of Education. Vol. V. " Textbooks." 

Sandford, E. C. " Relative Legibility of the Small Letters." American 
Journal of Psychology. Vol.1: 402-35. 

" Schoolbooks That Ruin the Eyesight." Literary Digest. Vol. 46: 
394; Feb. 22, 1913. 

"Square Deal." Journal of Education. Vol. 82: 660; Dec. 30, 

1915- 
Stuart, D. C. " One Way of Making Textbooks." Nation. Vol. 90 : 

428, 9; April 28, 1910. 
Thwing, C. F. " Improvement of the Textbook." Nation. Vol. 90 : 

424, 5 ; April 28, 1910. 
Woodworth, R. S. " Vision and Localization During Eye-movements," 

Psychological Bulletin. Vol. 3, No. 2. 



CHAPTER V 

THE TEXTBOOK AS A TOOL 

The Importance of Knowing One's Tools. It seems to 
have been tacitly assumed for many centuries that in the 
studying of abstract subjects the learner possessed as a gift 
of nature the ability to master the difficulties involved in the 
courses assigned or elected by him. The mind itself was 
regarded as a tool and the individual somehow knew by the 
gift of the gods just how this tool should be sharpened and 
handled. This attitude toward the educative process resulted 
in the development of memory as par excellence the method 
of study, and many volumes throughout the centuries have 
been written on memory and devices of memorizing. So- 
called memory schools have arisen, and complicated schemes 
of mnemonics have been contrived. More recently, however, 
educators have found it necessary to consider other methods 
of study and to give them greater significance in the classroom. 
Memorizing is important and even fundamental in all educa- 
tion, for unless we can retain and recall what has been learned 
education is a misnomer. But the educative process depends 
on other factors as well, and one of these is the ability to use 
the means universally selected for imparting knowledge and 
developing powers of understanding and thinking. 

What the hammer, saw, chisel, needle, scissors, etc., are to 
manual training and household arts, the textbook is to those 
courses where knowledge and training depend upon recorded 

122 



The Textbook as a Tool 123 

information, either entirely or in part. If it is vital to train 
pupils in the handling of tools in laboratory courses, it is 
equally essential that similar training be afforded them in 
f the use of the textbook. For the textbook is a tool by means 
of which knowledge is received and understanding developed. 
A properly constructed textbook is practically indispensable 
in formal education. But if it is not wisely used, it results in 
waste of time and effort, not to mention waste of money. 

Locke emphasizes these and other points in his Conduct of 
the Understanding. 

There is nothing almost has done more harm to men dedi- 
cated to letters than giving the names of study to reading, and 
making a man of great reading to be the same with a man of 
great knowledge, or at least to be the title of honor. . . . 
Books and reading are looked upon to be the great helps of the 
understanding and instruments of knowledge, as it must be allowed 
that they are; yet I beg leave to question whether these do not 
prove an hindrance to many and keep several bookish men from 
attaining to solid and true knowledge. This I think I may be 
permitted to say, that there is no part wherein the understanding 
needs more careful and wary conduct than in the use of books; 
without which they will prove rather innocent amusements than 
profitable employments of our time, and bring but small additions 
to our knowledge. 

And in the same connection : 

Till we ourselves see it with our own eyes and perceive it by 
our own understandings, we are as much in the dark and as void 
of knowledge as before, let us believe any learned author as 
much as we will. 

Aids to Study in Textbooks. The best textbooks are so 
arranged that under skillful direction the pupil is able to glean 



124 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

at least elementary acquaintanceship with the subject. More 
recent texts contain very definite aids to study. These helps 
are clearly stated, and the authors have not failed to label 
their directions as " helps to study." The pupil notes that 
the author has had him in mind and has not been concerned 
chiefly or entirely in supplying information about the subject. 
In using the textbook as a tool three lines of direction are 
available. The first of these consists of : 



I. SUGGESTIONS BY THE AUTHOR 

It has already been stated that authors of modern text- 
books include directions of study which will facilitate the 
pupil's grasp of the various assignments. Some of these di- 
rections refer to methods of memorizing, physical conditions 
of study, means of providing concentration, etc. But more 
definite than these are the other suggestions for study. 

The Syllabus. Not infrequently the author supplies his 
reader with a summary of the contents of the chapter arranged 
in a series of short sentences or paragraphs that contain the 
gist of the main points. Stated in this tabloid form the 
reader has a birdseye view of the chapter and can more readily 
appreciate the relationship between the several subdivisions 
appearing in the chapter. Two kinds of arrangement of the 
syllabus are in vogue. 

The syllabus preceding the chapter and forming an intro- 
duction to its contents is especially valuable in providing the 
pupil with a background. If he reads through this syllabus 
under the teacher's direction, he becomes acquainted with 
terms and ideas whose restatement and elaboration are some- 
what familiar and therefore more easily understood. The 



The Textbook as a Tool 125 

pupil has been prepared for the new material. He has al- 
ready seen the new material in its large associations and 
meaning. In the more detailed study that follows, subdi- 
visions and special points of emphasis will have appeal be- 
cause they belong to a whole that he has already seen. To 
use an illustration from aviation, he has flown over the new 
territory and has seen its boundaries and inner organization. 
Without this overhead view his progress through the chapter 
must indeed appear haphazard and puzzling. 

Every teacher knows how essential it is in presenting the 
pupil to strange material that some lines of connection with 
familiar material be run in order to unify experience and 
lay foundations for ready comprehension. None of us can 
grasp wholly strange principles and facts. If, however, we 
discover in the new something that reminds us of the old, 
perception and understanding become possible. The skill- 
ful teacher will link the new with experience that is per- 
sonally interesting to each pupil, or with experience that has 
become his by means of thorough comprehension. The pre- 
Kminary syllabus, therefore, must be explained in its relation- 
ship to what the child already knows, otherwise it is of but 
little value. 

Illustrations oj the preliminary syllabus. Various forms of 
the syllabus preceding the chapter can be found in the more 
recent textbooks. A good example of the outline type occurs 
in Towne's Social Problems. 1 The chapter on " Conservation 
of Human Life" is outlined as follows: 

I. Safety 

1. General significance 

2. National organization for safety 

1 Macmillan, 1916. 



126 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

3. First-aid work 

4. Railroad organizations for safety 

5. Safety in mines 

6. Safety in factories 

7. Work of corporations toward safety 

8. State control 

9. New standards for coroner's office 
II. Industrial diseases 

1. Definition 

2. Prevalence 

3. Lines of action necessary 

a. Investigation 

b. Legislation 

c. Education of the public 

4. Results of prevention 

5. Conclusions 
III. Infant mortality 

1. Extent 

2. Rate compared with other countries 

3. Causes 

4. Combative measures 

5. Public sentiment 

6. National Association 

7. Signs of progress 

8. Children's bureau 
IV. Health and Sanitation 

1. Diseases classified 

2. Length of life 

' 3. Different diseases 

a. Causes 

b. Methods of combating each 
4. Needs of the United States 

a. Scientific preventive medicine 

b. Health boards and experts 



The Textbook as a Tool 127 

c. Cooperation of the people 

d. Eugenics 

e. Pure food 
V. Conclusion 

In A Student's History of Education by Graves * the pre- 
liminary syllabus is a well-condensed summary of the chapter. 
For example, the chapter on "The Scientific Movement and 
the Curriculum" is introduced by four quintessential para- 
graphs : 

OUTLINE 

During the past two centuries a great growth has taken place in 
the natural sciences. For a long time this development affected 
the practical life very little, but during the nineteenth century 
the application of science to industrial problems has resulted in a 
host of inventions. 

Because of the importance of the sciences to life, Spencer and 
others have urged the inclusion of them in the curricula of schools 
and colleges. While the content of the sciences has furnished the 
chief argument for this, many scientists have urged their value as 
formal discipline. 

Instruction in the sciences has gradually been included in the 
higher and secondary, as well as in the elementary institutions 
of Germany, France, England, and the United States. 

This marked scientific movement is allied with the psychological 
tendency in its improvement of method, and with the sociological 
in its emphasis upon human welfare. 

A similar arrangement is adopted in The History of Modern 
Elementary Education by S. C. Parker. 2 The syllabus is 
called " Main Points of the Chapter " and in numerical order 
gives the essentials of the chapter. 

1 Macmillan, 1916. * Ginn and Co., 1912. 



128 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

It is not always possible or necessary to provide intro- 
ductory outlines of the contents of a chapter, but wherever 
possible such outlines are a valuable aid to the pupil, espe- 
cially when the teacher discusses the syllabus with the class, 
the pupils having their books open. 

A happy and stimulating introduction, slightly different 
from the forms considered, but maintaining the necessary 
elements of a syllabus, is found in Long's English and Ameri- 
can Literature} Each chapter is headed with an apt poetical 
quotation, an historical outline, and a paragraph on typical 
writers or a general critical estimate of the men and works 
about to be studied. Separated from the main body of the 
chapter by smaller type and large leading, the introductory 
material is attractive in appearance as well as helpful in its 
subject-matter. 

More usual is the summary or syllabus that follows the 
chapter. If the kind just considered provides a background, 
the more usual arrangement supplies a means of review and 
recall, both of which are indispensable in any field of study. 
The author of a text regards certain statements in the chapter 
as especially important, and by means of a syllabus lists those 
points for the reader's benefit. Some authors use a brief and 
general summary, but for the beginning pupil itemized resumes 
are preferable. 

The question may arise whether both of these kinds of 
syllabi might be used in a chapter. The preliminary syllabus 
would perhaps be more detailed than the other and aim chiefly 
to give the organization of the material. The review syllabus 
would not deal with the structure of the contents but rather 
with such important points as the author deemed pertinent 

1 Ginn and Co., 1917. 



The Textbook as a Tool 129 

for the understanding of the entire subject treated in the 
text. The employment of both kinds is, therefore, important. 
Illustrations of the summary that follows the chapter. A 
unique and distinctly valuable form of this type of summary 
is employed in Human Behavior by Colvin and Bagley. 1 
For example, at the end of the chapter on " How Instinctive 
Behavior May Be Changed," the authors summarize the dis- 
cussion by giving the following " Definitions and Explanations 
of Terms Used " : 

Modification of instincts. — Changing the character of an 
instinctive activity by (1) attaching another feeling and its appro- 
priate response to an object that naturally arouses an undesirable 
instinct; (2) attaching another response to an object and the 
feeling that it naturally arouses ; (3) or detaching a feeling from 
its natural object and response, and attaching it to other objects 
and responses. 

Sublimation of instinct. — Modification of the third type- de- 
scribed above. 

Doctrine of natural punishments. — The theory that the unguided 
experience of the child will lead to the essential modification of 
instinctive tendencies. 

Ideal. — An idea surcharged with feeling, and thus made an 
effective end or goal of conduct. 

By this means review and recall are promoted more readily 
than if the pupil were left to do his own summarizing, a task 
especially difficult in a subject like psychology. 

Breslich uses a similar study device in his three volumes on 
Mathematics, already referred to. A brief citation taken 
from Third Year Mathematics is typical. 

1 Macmillan, 1915. 



130 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

SUMMARY 

355. The chapter has taught the meaning of the following terms : 
polyhedral angle, triedral angle, polar spherical triangles. 

356. The following theorems have been studied : 

(Here follow twenty of the theorems.) 

357. The following constructions were taught : 

(Three of these are given.) 

358. The following formulas have been proved : 

(Three of these are described.) 

A splendid means of recall is provided in the last chapter 
of this book, where Breslich gives a " Summary of the As- 
sumptions and Theorems of Geometry Given in the Course 
of the First and Second Years." 

In his Vocational Mathematics, Dooley furnishes a " Table 
of Formulas " with page references which might be used for 
convenient recall. For example : 

Depth of thread of U. S. Standard See page 142 

D Px. 649S 

Hessler in his First Year of Science 1 arranges the summaries 
in a manner similar to that in Human Behavior, the large 
amount of material in each chapter, however, necessitating a 
much longer listing of definitions and explanations. ■ 

Special attention should be called to the summaries given 
by Morgan and Lyman in their text in Chemistry. 2 Some of 
these are given in both tabular and definitional forms. The 
latter are comprehensive and really give the pupil a terse 
restatement of what has been elaborated in more detail in 
the chapter. In this form they indicate what the authors 

1 Benjamin H. Sanborn and Co. 1915. 2 Macmillan. 1913. 



The Textbook as a Tool 131 

regard as essential. The pupil's accurate and economical 
reviewing is greatly facilitated by this line of suggestion. 

A very effective form of summarizing is used by Black and 
Davis in their Practical Physics. 1 The " Summary of Prin- 
ciples " is printed in black-face type and reviews the impor- 
tant truths and formulas of the chapter. For example: 

When a wire cuts lines of force, an induced E. M. F. is set up in the wire. 
To get direction of current use the right hand. 

Thumb. Motion. 

Forefinger. Flux. 

Center finger. Direction of Current. 
Magnitude of E. M. F. varies as speed X flux X turns. 
Slip rings give alternating current. 
Commutative give direct current. 

Dynamo does not make energy, it transforms mechanical Into electric 
energy. 

Motor transforms electrical energy into mechanical energy. 

In his three volumes on literature William Long has given 
careful attention to the summarizing of each period. The 
subheads of these summaries cover the points indicated by 
the following : Summary of the Revolutionary Period, Litera- 
ture, Typical Writers, First American Novels. The details 
of the chapters are well condensed and coordinated so that 
the reader obtains in tabloid form a clear impression of 
the meaning of a particular unit in the development of the 
course. 

Questions and Problems Following Each Chapter. These 
are of great help in two particulars. They make reviewing 
convenient, but their chief value lies in stimulating the pupil 
to apply what he has studied and to think out the solution of 
the problems suggested by the author, especially if these prob- 

1 Macmillan. 1917. 



132 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

lems refer to matters in which the pupil is personally inter- 
ested. It may be difficult to provide questions for all kinds 
of interests in a subject, but between the heavy condensation 
of material that characterizes many textbooks, and the listing 
of a large number of questions to suit the appeals current in 
practically every class, it would be better to abandon con- 
densation and to multiply questions. A skillful question will 
probe much deeper than a condensed treatment. And it 
should be remembered that where a large number of questions 
are provided no one pupil should be expected to answer all 
of them but only those that have personal interest for him, in 
addition to certain others that everybody should be able to 
answer in a particular subject. 

Illustrations of questions and problems. It is difficult to 
select any typical illustrations of this phase of textbook 
making, for the recent texts contain in large numbers excel- 
lent material along these lines. One finds in practically 
every subject textbooks whose questions and problems for 
study link up with immediate needs and interests. Reference 
has already been made to some of these in Dickson's American 
History for Grammar Grades, and in several of the texts on 
mathematics. Among the many excellent facilities for ap- 
plying the subject-matter of the textbook in wider and more 
extensive study are the questions formulated by Ashley. 1 
The following, at the close of the chapter on " Progress and 
Problems, " are typical: 

Place in your notebook a complete summary of the following 
topics, showing the sections of the text in which details may be 
obtained : Territorial growth, railway development and control, 

1 American History, Revised 19 14. Macmillan. 



The Textbook as a Tool 133 

foreign relations in general, social changes after the (1) Revolu- 
tionary War, (2) during the first half of the nineteenth century, 
(3) during the last half century. 

2. What are the chief advantages of economic consolidation? 
What are the disadvantages of the policy? Why do trusts raise 
prices if they have no competition ? 

7. What are the chief problems for the nation to solve ? What 
solutions have been suggested for each? 

Mr. Ashley uses three divisions in his questions and prob- 
lems. For example: 

TOPICS 

1. Cuba and the United States before 1898: The American 
Nation, xxi, 171-173; xxv, 3-28; Hart, " American Foreign 
Policy," pp. 103-13 ; Latane, " United States and Spanish 
America," pp. 89-175; Callahan, "Cuba and International Rela- 
tions," Chadwick. 

STUDIES 

1. Isolation of the United States before 1897. (Olney, R., in 
Atlantic Monthly, 8 (1898), pp. 577-588.) 

8. Character of the Panama Route. (Burr, W. H., in Scribner's 
Magazine, 31 (1902), pp. 156-169.) 

QUESTIONS 

(Reference has already been made to these.) 

Robinson l uses many stimulating questions, and aids the 
student by giving the section that covers the ground of the 
question. For example : 

Section 157. Trace the events of the summer of 1914. 

1 Medieval and Modern Times. Ginn and Co., 1916. 



134 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Attention should also be called to the questions in How 
to Teach by Strayer and Norsworthy, 1 where the student 
is directed to think of teaching in the terms of the actual 
school situation. For example, at the close of the chapter 
on " The Significance of Individual Differences " the authors 
ask: 

13. Will a boy who has unusual ability in music certainly be 
superior in all other subjects? 

14. Why are children who skip a grade apt to be able to skip 
again at the end of two or three years ? 

15. Are you able to distinguish differences in type of mind 
(or general mental make-up) among the children in your classes ? 
Give illustrations. 

16. What changes in school organization would you advocate 
for the sake of adjusting the teaching done to the varying capacities 
of children? 

17. How should a teacher adjust his work to the individual 
differences in capacity or in achievement presented by the usual 
class group ? 

From the current hostility toward Latin it might seem as 
though this subject were doomed to the ignominy of serving 
no clear and vital purpose or interest for the usual pupil. 
Only rarely does one find that the author of a textbook in 
either ancient or modern language has tried to provoke real 
thinking beyond the formal perceptualizing among case 
endings and problems of locution. And yet one feels that sub- 
ject-matter in Caesar and Virgil (not to mention the other 
texts) is potentially thought-provoking, and that some of 
these possibilities ought to be suggested to the pupil and to 
the unawakened teacher by the author. Fairclough and 

1 Macmillan, 191 7. 



The Textbook as a Tool 135 

Brown * have succeeded in listing many admirable questions 
that ought to arouse real studying. For example, among the 
questions on Book I are these : 

What passages show the character of ^Eneas? What char- 
acteristics do you find emphasized? What are the essential 
qualities of a leader ? Does ^Eneas possess them ? (Cite passages 
to show reasons for your opinion). . . . How does Latin verse 
differ from English? Describe the meter of the JEneid. What, 
English verse-forms are used to translate it ? How does Tennyson 
describe it ? . . . Quote five reminiscences of Book I in English 
writers.' 

At the close of Book VI are a large number of unusual 
stimuli to reflection and correlation. Surely the following 
under the guidance of an enthusiastic and well-informed 
teacher should keep the pupils alert : 

Which of the first six books could be omitted with least injury 
to the poem as a whole ? What do you consider the most beautiful 
passage in the poem ? What effects beneficial to Rome would such 
a poem be expected to produce? What are the leading ideas 
animating the poem? . . . Was Virgil a religious poet? . . . 
Illustrate the spirituality of the JEneid. ... To what Greek 
and Roman poets was Virgil most indebted? What has been the 
extent of his influence on European literature in general? On 
English poetry? . . . Cite six Virgilian expressions which have 
become proverbial, etc. 

Reference has already been made to Towne's Social Prob- 
lems. Each chapter is summarized in a list of review ques- 
tions that aim to emphasize the discussion as directed by the 
author. But at the close of the book is a generous supply of 
supplementary questions whose consideration will quicken 
1 Virgil's Mneid. Benjamin H. Sanborn and Co., 1914. 



136 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

the pupil's interest in his environment. The questions are 
grouped under chapter headings to correspond to the arrange- 
ment of the text. 

In his American Literature 1 Dr. Long explains that the Sug- 
gestive Questions appended to each chapter " are not to be 
considered as an examination. They are intended chiefly to 
stimulate the pupil's thinking, to encourage his independent 
judgment, and occasionally to lead him away into a field of 
pleasant research." Such questions as the following are more 
than formal didactic class exercises. 

Of Bradford's History the scholarly Senator Hoar said, "I read 
again and with renewed enthusiasm and delight the noble and 
touching story." Speaking of his search for the original manu- 
script he said: "It seemed to me then as it now seems to me, the 
most precious manuscript on earth." Can you explain or under- 
stand his enthusiasm? 

Name the five books of the Leatherstocking drama in their 
natural order. In what respect is The Pioneers better than the 
others ? What is the chief interest of The Last of the Mohicans ? 
What are the essential differences between the latter story and a 
dime novel of Indian adventure? 

Summaries Throughout the Chapter and at Its Close. Ref- 
erence has already been made to the current defect of making 
a textbook too much a condensed compendium of knowledge. 
This is the danger of exhaustive teaching rather than care- 
fully evaluated direction in the learning of a subject. Ob- 
viously, no one text can deal thoroughly with all the aspects 
of a field of knowledge, and, this being true, much harm may 
be done in overcrowding the book by condensations that must 
seem only a mere jumble of words to most if not all pupils. 

1 Ginn and Co., 1913. 



The Textbook as a Tool 



137 



Summaries throughout the chapter should follow carefully 
evaluated details that are plain and concrete. Each detail 
is a thread and a turn of the hook. The preliminary syllabus 
provides the pattern, the reviewing syllabus examines the 
section thus far completed. But between the pattern and the 
review are smaller summaries where the pupil ties together 
what he has just done and observes the meaning of the de- 
tails on which he has been working. The summary without 
the detail is well-nigh hopeless, and details without summary 
lead to confusion and the failure to build up ideas and concepts 
usable in the final and more complete understanding of the 
course. 

For young pupils it perhaps is unwise to use very general 
summaries. The itemized syllabus probably is better. But 
the general summary by the author is not to be neglected en- 
tirely. It has great value in suggesting to the pupils how 
summaries should be made. Some authors employ the sum- 
mary in the form of definitions of terms that have been con- 
sidered in more detail throughout the chapter. Others in- 
terpret the meaning of what has been discussed in the light 
of what has been learned in preceding chapters. This might be 
called a "cumulative summary," and, when studied under the 
teacher's direction, is doubtless very helpful in the gradual 
unfolding of the pupil's appreciation and understanding. 
Such a " cumulative summary " might well run throughout 
the book in addition to the more detailed syllabi. 

Illustrations of intra-textual summaries. Tarr in his New 
Physical Geography 1 makes excellent use of this type of sum- 
mary. Brief and still comprehensive, these summaries give 
the gist of each section in a chapter. They are printed in 

1 Macmillan, 191 7. 



138 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

italics and in blackface type are headed " Summary." In the 
chapter on " The Ocean " there are twenty of these summaries. 
At the end of the chapter there is a topical outline that gives 
the main headings of each section. 

References for Additional Reading. Fortunately no well- 
trained teacher any longer limits himself to one textbook. 
Especially in these days of the rapid extension of knowledge 
and the wide diversity of interests is it impossible for one 
text to contain an exhaustive treatment of any one subject. 
Authors differ in their point of view and interpretation. Some 
texts are valuable for one thing and others for another. It is 
therefore necessary that careful and detailed references be 
given in each book to similar treatments in books where a 
more comprehensive discussion is available. 

References to additional reading are valuable in stimulating 
original organization by the pupil. The beginner needs in- 
struction and training in this kind of studying. He learns that 
the author has depended on information collected by others, 
and is thereby able to read for himself what the author used. 
In the lower grades it may be impossible to do much of this 
supplementary work and perhaps it is unnecessary to require 
more than an occasional report on such reading. But enough 
of it should be done by each pupil to acquaint the class as a 
whole with the broad scope of the subject. Cubberley be- 
lieves that in every primary room there should be at least 
ten sets of suitable supplementary readers. " By a system 
of exchange the same sets might be made to do service in 
several classrooms within the year." 1 

References by the author are valuable to the teacher in the 
enrichment of his own point of view. The progressive teacher 
1 The Portland Survey. World Book Co., 1916. 



The Textbook as a Tool 139 

will, therefore, welcome such additional reading because of 
the light it throws on the briefer form of treatment in the 
text. Many suggestive illustrations and interesting prob- 
lems are available by this means. 

Illustrations. It perhaps is unnecessary to stress the im- 
portance of supplying the text with accurate and interesting 
illustrations. One picture will mean more than many words. 
In history and the sciences illustrations are invaluable. Texts 
on vocational mathematics and even books in ancient and 
modern languages are improved by the careful selection of 
pictures that present scenes or photographs of otherwise 
obscure meanings. The tremendous influence of Orbis Pictus 
by Comenius, the first illustrated textbook, is due to its rich 
assortment of pictures, each illustration making unmistak- 
ably clear what is meant by the corresponding description in 
sentence form. 

But illustrations include more than drawings and photo- 
graphs. Charts, tables, and diagrams are indispensable, pro- 
vided they are properly explained by the author. A chart 
without explanation is practically useless, for it is the author's 
mode of treating his material and, while making use of certain 
principles and rules that govern the construction of charts 
and diagrams and tables, each application of these principles 
involves the author's own reaction, and therefore requires 
detailed explanation. When properly constructed such il- 
lustrations are of inestimable value in providing clear and 
accurate perception, without which understanding and ap- 
plication are almost impossible. 

Examples of textbook illustrations. In no particular has 
there been greater improvement in recent textbooks than in 
the matter of pictorial illustrations. The history texts by 



140 • Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Ashley, Dickson, Robinson, Harding, and West are unusually 
beautiful and accurate in their illustrations. Wherever pos- 
sible half-tones replace wood cuts and imaginative drawings, 
which, while ornamental, frequently convey wrong impres- 
sions. Texts in mathematics are also illustrated by means 
of half-tones, excellent examples being found in the texts by 
Breslich, Dooley, and Hawkes-Tuby-Touton. 

Language books are similarly made interesting, Fairclough 
and Brown's Virgil being a striking instance. The First Book 
in French by Maloubier and Moore 1 deserves special mention. 
In this book the student may study, at his leisure, scenes and 
portraits typical of French life and history. Such pictures 
as La Cite et le Pont Neuf, Le Bois de Boulogne, and Victor 
Hugo are altogether satisfying from the standpoint of edu- 
cational art. 

Books in science are vitalized in part by photographs of 
interesting experiments and of applications of scientific prin- 
ciples as well as of the great scientists. Morgan and Lyman 
have made their Chemistry even more valuable by the nu- 
merous page pictures that visualize the verbal descriptions in 
the text. While less artistic, the pictures in Barber's First 
Course in General Science are to the point and deal with up- 
to-date subjects. Hessler's are, on the whole, more artistic 
but not superior to Barber's in directness of appeal. The 
portraits of eminent scientists are particularly attractive in 
Milliken and Gale's A First Course in Physics, the half-tones 
of Lord Kelvin and of Faraday being especially noteworthy. 

Maps. Great improvement is noticeable in the newer 
maps. The coloring is in softer tones. It is unfortunate 
and possibly unavoidable that the double page maps are still 

1 Macmillan. 1915. 



The Textbook as a Tool 141 

employed without special protection against wear and tear. 
The pupil in attempting to read the lettering on the creased 
portion of the map can hardly avoid removing the map from 
its binding. After a short period of service one finds that 
many of the maps will be loose and torn. West, for example, 
uses many of these maps. Robinson, however, employs the 
device of breaking the page about a quarter of an inch near 
the back of the book, thereby preventing the maps from 
being torn loose when the book is pressed open. 

In books otherwise so excellent it is unpleasant to find maps 
like the Ethnographic Map of Austria-Hungary in Robin- 
son's text, page 738, where the lettering in many places is al- 
most unreadable. A similar defect is found in West's book on 
The Ancient World, page 283. 

A very peculiar map of Alexander's Empire is given in 
American Beginnings in Europe by Gordy. 1 The boundaries 
of the empire are printed in heavy dark blue lines which fail 
to harmonize with the softer greens and browns of the body 
of the map. The total impression is Futuristic. The reader, 
of course, can easily trace the boundaries by this means, but 
one regrets that an otherwise artistic book is so ugly in this 
one particular. A similar map of ancient Greece is much more 
harmonious in color scheme. 

Little need be said of the large maps in the more popular 
school geographies. Both the Tarr and McMurry and the 
Frye geographies are worthy of praise for their maps. Gan- 
nett, Garrison-Houston's Commercial Geography 2 has an 
unusual series of artistic maps. 

Diagrams. Modern textbook authors show marvelous in- 
genuity in their construction of charts, graphs, and diagrams. 
1 Scribner's. 1912. 2 American Book Co. 191^ 



142 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

In mathematics books and texts on science these devices are 
especially common and striking. Canby and others in their 
English Composition 1 use an ingenious diagram in explaining 
the " Brief on the Value of Intercollegiate Football." The 
authors have constructed what at first might easily be inter- 
preted as the front of a grand stand but what really represents 
a railroad trestle. Perhaps calling the diagram the frame- 
work of a grand stand would be more apt in discussing foot- 
ball. The main heads and subheads of the brief form the 
uprights and supporting ends of the structure. The whole 
arrangement is clear and interesting. 

Summary. The foregoing considerations of the author's 
direction of study indicate that textbook making is not merely 
an abstract discussion of a branch of knowledge. The text 
is a tool and it must be used in certain ways for the best re- 
sults. The author has made the tool. He is expected to 
understand its uses in accomplishing the important mission 
of introducing the learner to the principles, rules, and more 
important facts belonging to the subject he has discussed. 
In fulfilling his task the author will aid the pupil in getting 
a preview at each new stage in the rather difficult journey he 
has begun. He will, moreover, halt here and there and 
make note of the vital truths already studied. These truths 
have raised questions and problems. Because time and space 
have prevented him from taking inviting side trips the au- 
thor will supply references and guides to such excursions if 
the schedule and the development of the pupil allow such 
trips. And he will also make sure that the pupil's compre- 
hension is aided by appeals to exact copies of the things he 
has described. He will make charts and tables and diagrams 

1 Macmillan, 1914. p. 175. 



The Textbook as a Tool 143 

that analyze the problems considered. By this variety of 
suggestions he shows himself concerned with the develop- 
ment of those features in the learning process termed apper- 
ception, perception, recall, association, understanding, and 
thinking. 

II. SUGGESTIONS BY THE TEACHER 

The teacher stands between the author and the pupil. 
What has just been said regarding the author's directions of 
study does not minimize the need of having some one to help 
the pupil become acquainted with the author's manner of 
supervision. And it is because the teacher is indispensable 
in the learning process that his function as director of learning 
must be exalted. The teacher is not a dispenser of knowledge. 
He is a supervisor of learning. His whole calling is funda- 
mentally concerned with training pupils to use their minds 
both for the understanding of essential facts, and for the 
discovery and application of knowledge. This being so, the 
teacher needs to know how to direct pupils in the handling 
of the tool now being considered. The author, we may pre- 
sume, has done his part. Now the teacher supplements the 
author's suggestions by some of his own. This work of 
supervision, as far as the textbook is concerned, will follow 
at least three lines. 

Evaluated Assignments. It is a common experience 
among teachers that pupils are unable to evaluate an assign- 
ment. They will either study haphazardly, or, in the effort 
to be conscientious, will memorize or otherwise study every- 
thing in the new lesson. The author has given several para- 
graphs in the chapter. There are many details which to the 
beginner and untrained pupil seem about equal in importance. 



144 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

He will either become confused or make use of memorizing in 
his desire to make a perfect recitation. He studies in order 
to recite, knowing that his class marks depend on his ability 
to recite. There are hopeful signs that this type of teaching 
is becoming unpopular. Alert teachers act on the theory 
that in each lesson there are important and incidental ma- 
terials. It is right to expect teachers to know the distinction 
between these two kinds of subject-matter and to assign work 
accordingly. 

The old-fashioned page assignment is not altogether bottled 
up for museum exhibition. There are some live specimens 
abroad and they are as mischievous as ever. However good 
a textbook may be it does not deserve to be studied in every 
detail. Few books are worth reading word for word and page 
by page. Reading and studying are in their very nature 
selective as well as intensive. Unless the teacher understands 
how to weigh the material in each assignment his pupils will 
be engaged in the lifeless task of studying one text and will con- 
fine their efforts to mere " book larnin'." There is need of the 
saner and happier conception of teaching which selects what 
is important and requires of the learner intensive application 
chiefly to this material. 

In evaluating assignments the teacher will doubtless find 
it necessary at first to list the important things to be studied. 
The beginning pupil needs guidance along these lines, and 
there is little danger of giving him too much assistance. 
This does not mean that he should depend on such direction 
throughout the subject. With maturity in his acquaintance 
with the course will come the ability to evaluate for himself. 
Evaluating assignments in this way will require on the part 
of the teacher careful study of the contents of the course, and a 



The Textbook as a Tool 145 

thorough knowledge of the chief textbook used or of the several 
books selected for study. There is barely time in these days 
of multiplication of courses to do more than stress the all- 
important points in the course. But there may be time dur- 
ing the reviews for a consideration of some of the incidental 
material. The latter is not wholly insignificant, only rela- 
tively so. 

When teachers realize that reciting is less important than 
ability to work with one's mind successfully and happily, 
they will find time not only for the daily review (the usual 
recitation), but also for the supplementing of the regular class- 
book study with reports that include incidental material as 
this and the more important matter are related to problems 
of application. The textbook then becomes a tool in think- 
ing, which simply means the ability to relate important and 
secondary matters in an organization that answers a par- 
ticular need. A textbook that is merely learned by heart is 
not a tool of learning ; it is a device for training a particular 
kind of memorizing. But when the teacher carefully selects 
the material to be studied, and calls the pupil's attention to 
these important items in the lesson, together with the re- 
minder that the remaining material should be read and con- 
sidered in the light of the more intensive facts (but need not 
be so carefully studied), he has shown the pupil that the text 
is a tool of thinking as well as of understanding. 

Explanation and Interpretation. Little need be said about 
this necessary duty of the teacher. It should be remembered, 
however, that each day's assignment needs careful elucidation 
so that the common difficulties are anticipated and obscure 
terms and meanings properly interpreted. This is especially 
important in the lower grades where the learning process is 



146 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

predominantly that of understanding and habit formation. 
It is a common theory that the learner should be required to 
master all difficulties without any help whatsoever. The 
effort itself, regardless of results, is valuable. What is meant 
in explaining common difficulties, however, is not this ever- 
ready willingness to do the work for the pupil, but rather to 
make it possible for him to work with more economy of time 
and effort. The new assignment doubtless will have obscure 
terms. Some of these can be looked up in the dictionary, 
but unless the pupil has been taught how to use the dictionary, 
he will find any number of meanings and probably will select 
one that does not exactly suit the context. Stating what these 
words mean in their present connection is not doing too much 
for the pupil. It saves his time and discouragement and 
failure. Explaining certain facts of history before the pupil 
studies them in more detail will make intelligible what he 
reads and organizes . To work out model examples on the black- 
board with full explanation is not doing too much for the 
pupil. 

The Open Book. What has just been said leads naturally 
into another aspect of study that strangely has been neglected 
these many years. Few teachers in the past would allow the 
pupils to keep the books open during the recitation. And to 
have a book open during examination was, of course, horribly 
impossible. But after all why not have the book open? 
If we discard the memoriter recitation, will it not be a splendid 
test of understanding to keep the books open and have the 
pupils explain what the author says, and give proof that the 
principles and rules in the lesson are appreciated and can be 
applied ? What we are concerned about is the pupil's ability 
to use the book as a tool. In years to come he will have for- 



The Textbook as a Tool 147 

gotten many of the details in his earlier courses. How many 
who read these pages can work a problem in cube root? 
But once you could. To revive the earlier skill all that is 
needed is to refer to a book in arithmetic and the submerged 
ability will be restored. It is not vital that all or most of us 
should know cube root, but if some need arises for the pro- 
cesses of cube root it would be helpful to know how to follow 
the directions of the textbook in its explanation of this kind 

of work. 

The open book in literature and history is full of interesting 
possibilities in an oral supervised study period. It is an aim 
of education to encourage pupils to express knowledge in 
their own words. With the textbook open before them pu- 
pils may be trained to state briefly and clearly what the author 
has written, giving his thought in a terse summary, and 
evincing by the careful and carefree use of language that the 
meaning is well understood. This does away with the com- 
mon monotonous repetition of the author's exact words, an 
evidence that the pupil has simply committed to memory 
what has been written. 

The open book should be used in the beginning of a course, 
and so continued until the pupils have become fairly well ac- 
quainted with the work involved in the course. Occasionally 
thereafter the book may be open during review, for the re- 
view is concerned not so much with facts memorized as with 
principles and facts well understood. Many teachers would 
be surprised to find that if the pupils were allowed to use books 
during examinations the results would not be necessarily an 
increase in high grades. Giving the pupil a page in literature 
or in history and requiring that the author's meaning be 
stated in a few clear words might prove to be a much more 



148 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

difficult examination than asking a number of factual ques- 
tions about what the author writes. 

Summary. The teacher must know how to handle the 
textbook and must be able to train the pupils in their employ- 
ment of this tool. The tool can be rightly used or wrongly 
used according to the teacher's ability to guide the pupil. 
Helping the beginner to select the valuable and disregard the 
less important material is one way of teaching him the eco- 
nomical use of the tool. Explaining the common difficulties 
in the new assignment is hardly different from explaining to 
the manual training pupil the peculiarities of a saw or of a 
lathe or of a piece of wood. Regarding the textbook as pre- 
eminently a guide to be frequently referred to, the teacher 
and pupil will study it together as it lies open. There will be 
days when the pupil's progress will be tested with the books 
closed, but it should never be forgotten that progress educa- 
tionally does not mean simply ability to recite well from 
memory. Education means also ability to understand and 
interpret, and to gain these ends it is not essential to depend 
on a closed book. 



III. REACTIONS BY THE PUPILS 

Having considered the author's and the teacher's directions 
as to how the textbook should be used as a tool of learning we 
are now interested in observing how the pupil handles the tool. 
However effective the text may be either by the author's 
skillful construction or the teacher's wise and discriminate 
employment of the book, it becomes for the pupil even more 
valuable if he reacts to it in a manner that really sharpens it 
for service. It will not be necessary to elaborate the sug- 



The Textbook as a Tool 149 

gestions that follow. They are referred to here more as 
reminders than as anything wholly new to the teacher. 

Underscoring. It is only rarely that one finds a period 
or part of one devoted to instruction and training in the im- 
portant study device of underscoring. The common use of 
free textbooks has made it somewhat prohibitive to " deface " 
books with pencil marks of any kind. And indiscriminate 
underscoring is, of course, worse than none at all. But if 
underscoring is done with a soft pencil, and made lightly, 
erasure is quite easy, and the result leaves the book in a 
condition little worse for this kind of wear. If brackets 
or parallel lines are used instead of long horizontal lines, 
the benefit to the pupil will be as great and the possibility of 
harm to the book will be diminished. The work of under- 
scoring important points or sentences might well form part 
of an assignment, a test, or an examination, either in the 
book itself or in quotations written on paper or on the black- 
board. 

No small part of education's great task consists in training 
the individual to pass judgment on the train of experiences 
that will certainly modify his development in one way or 
another. It is not implied that underscoring and similar de- 
vices of evaluation will produce in the pupil a peculiar power 
of judgment. They will, however, direct his attention to 
the need of passing judgment very early in his career on 
whatever affects his life. He must know what is important 
and what is incidental. He must see clearly the difference 
between the false and the true. He must distinguish between 
what has been well done and what has been poorly done. 
He must sense the controlling principle that designates one 
thing beautiful and another thing ugly. As it now is, he is 



150 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

tempted to memorize or to neglect everything in school 
work. He is not encouraged in all subjects to weigh evidence, 
to verify statements, to understand thoroughly what he 
reads. Analysis often means mere outlining in composition 
or simple experimentation in science (a merely imitative type 
of experiment). 

It is by careful selection of what is important and the 
discarding of all non-essentials that ideas gradually become 
general and universal. One finds much biased judgment 
in everyday affairs, as well as in the higher realms of think- 
ing. Emotional prejudice sweeps away the judgment of 
what is really good and of what is bad in an enemy. We 
cannot (at least we rarely do) see all sides of a question. A 
narrow, often selfish, frequently hasty interpretation sweeps 
us to an unfair conclusion. The trouble is that we have 
not been trained to adopt the judicial attitude. From early 
school days we have become accustomed to accept things 
as of equal value or of no value, or of supreme value, all ac- 
cording to the emotional dictum that commands us at the 
moment. 

1 

In school the line of work must be switched toward a very 
definite program, that has in view the discriminating indi- 
vidual, the balanced reflective citizen in whose charge the 
affairs of family and of state may be reasonably safe. There 
is no need of individuals who have crammed their minds full 
of merely interesting facts and notions (because curiosity 
naturally gave them a bias) , but who thereby seemingly have 
not developed directive skill for themselves or for the state. 
All school work needs to be characterized by the reflective 
attitude and not merely or chiefly by the processes of memo- 
rizing and imitating. 



The Textbook as a Tool 151 

Notations on inserted pages, fly leaves, or on the margin 
of the page save much of the time and strength commonly 
employed in notebook work. They have the value of keeping 
the related material in close proximity where the pupil can 
readily find it, and more easily see its relationship to the 
printed contents of the book. If the pupil owns his book, it 
will be more feasible to make extensive use of notation. 
Practice in writing many points in an orderly manner on a 
small page may prove important beyond the immediate needs 
of the assignment. 

Cross References. Bewildering indeed is the state of mind 
of the average pupil when asked to show how his various 
courses are related or how the several parts of each course 
are connected in meaning and significance with other sections 
of the subject. And correspondingly he is overjoyed to rec- 
ognize in one subject what he has learned in another. His 
hand will be raised in eager willingness to indicate that he is 
familiar with this term or idea, etc. Much of the confusion 
common among pupils would be relieved if they were trained 
in connecting up similar material by means of some scheme 
of cross reference from page to page or from book to book. 
A short line under a word and opposite thereto in the margin 
a page or book and page reference is all that is needed ^ When 
the subject is reviewed these references will make the old 
meanings even richer. 

This type of reaction makes the best book appear to the 
pupil as something akin to an interesting puzzle which he and 
others in the class are solving. He covers more ground in his 
reference work. The assignment, which might include the 
employment of the index as a key to reference material, be- 
comes more meaningful if this work of organizing is required. 



152 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

And when each teacher encourages similar correlation between 
courses the pupil will soon appreciate the fact that he is en- 
gaged in a work that hangs together ; that each subject may 
help him in learning another; that school tasks are not a 
meaningless jumble but really fit into a rather unified scheme, 
just as one experience in life may be of great value in gaining 
and rightly using other experiences. " Book larnin' " changes 
into the fascinating task of constructing knowledge and ideas. 
One book is insufficient. One author is not enough. Many 
leaders are required, but the pupil begins to realize that while 
they may differ they also agree, and it is the agreement among 
books and authors that he must find and understand. 

Summaries. It cannot be repeated too often that one of 
the ends of education is to train the pupil to state in his own 
language, with increasing clearness and accuracy, what he 
has studied in the language of others. This need of sum- 
marizing can be satisfied not only in written recitations or 
tests but also in oral expression. The pupil will have more 
need of talking about history, literature, science, and civics 
than writing about them. The test of education will be his 
ability to use school experience readily in the common avenues 
of living. We educate also for emergencies, but the bulk of 
skill, knowledge, appreciation, and understanding will deal 
with the common day's affairs. Most of us have more need 
of talking than of writing. The brief oral digest of a para- 
graph or a section of the assignment is therefore valuable to 
all pupils regardless of their possible careers. 

In the business world there is frequent need of clerks who 
can summarize the contents of correspondence in a fine or 
two. Clerks and secretaries in too many instances cannot 
find the all-important item that needs special attention. The 



The Textbook as a Tool 153 

busy employer wants a secretary who can read a letter and 
then give its contents in a few words, accurately and com- 
prehensively, in the margin. This need of summarizing in a 
few lines is urgent when the employer gives the secretary or 
clerk a few directions from which a letter is to be framed, a 
letter, moreover, that will meet his needs with or without 
inspection on his part. The rush of business, the multitude 
of 'details in all forms of business and professional work, re- 
quires fine ability to extract the all-essential and to make a 
brief satisfactory summary of a number of details. Unless 
the schools call attention to this constant demand of the 
business world, and train the pupil in this sort of method, he 
may only slowly and perhaps too late find that his chances 
of promotion are snatched from him by those whose mental 
training makes their services of greater value to an employer, 
be the employer an individual, an institution, or the state. 

Care of the Book. We disapprove of the worker who 
allows his tools to become rusty and to remain dull. The 
hunter is proud of his highly polished gun, with barrel and 
bore shining like glass. The machinist keeps his engines and 
motors bright and beautiful. And we regard it as a defect 
in his training if the pupil is allowed to tear, soil, or in any 
way misuse the textbook, even if he owns it himself. A weekly 
inspection of all books is therefore a wholesome exercise. It 
takes only a few minutes and it impresses upon the pupil 
that part of his education is respect for the tools of education. 
Toothbrush drills are common in the grades. Textbook in- 
spection in both the elementary and secondary schools (one 
might also add and colleges) has moral value. 

Summary. The pupil's reaction to the textbook consists 
not only of the intelligent reading of its words or contents 



154 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

in general, but also of his evaluating its material and making 
this expression of judgment serviceable by means of dis- 
criminate underscoring. Supplementary material, as sug- 
gested by the author's treatment, should be recorded on 
inserted leaves and if the book is owned by the pupil, on the 
margin and fly-leaves. Cross references to similar material 
in the same book or in other books and courses help him to 
unify what he studies. Skill in stating briefly and accurately 
in his own words what he has learned will be required of him 
throughout life ; and therefore he needs training in this art 
of summarizing, some of which will be done in writing but 
most of it orally. As a workman in abstract subjects he 
should be required to take the best care of his tools, taught to 
appreciate the value of neat and clean books, not only because 
they are books and therefore the record of human labor but 
also because they are property. An individual's respect for 
property, personal and real, is an indication of his social re- 
finement, his sense of social responsibility, and no teacher 
can afford to minimize the importance of this essential in the 
training of young citizens. 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. Do you find that your pupils understand how to handle 
the textbook as a tool? How many of them do? How do you 
test their skill? 

2. How would you teach pupils to make syllabi in the subjects 
you teach? 

3. Do you find syllabi in any of the texts that you use? 

4. Have you ever tested the pupils' ability to study by having 
them make questions and state problems on an assignment? 
What processes of studying are involved in such ability? 



The Textbook as a Tool 155 

5. What per cent of the questions and problems in your tex1> 
books are thought-provoking and vital? 

6. Have you ever included in examinations the assignment to 
summarize a chapter or a page ? What would such questions test ? 

7. Do the illustrations in your texts awaken interest? Are 
they studied in class? Do the pupils ever ask questions about 
them? What are the functions of book illustrations? 

8. What difficulties do the pupils have in understanding dia- 
grams? How do you try to remove such difficulties? 

9. What is an evaluated assignment? Wherein does it excel? 
What kind of preparation on the part of the teacher does it require ? 

10. How often do you require the pupils to recite with their 
books open? What kind of recitation does this call for? What 
processes of learning are attended to under such conditions? 

11. Part of each period might be used for training the pupils 
to use the mechanics of studying. How would you deal with 
this type of work so far as the free textbook is concerned ? 

REFERENCES 

Blair, F. G. " Study and the Use of Books." N. E. A. Proceedings ; 

1909. P. 852. 
Buck, E. C. Guide to Teacher's Mastery of Texts. 2d Edition. E. C. 

Buck; Cedar Falls, Iowa ; 1908. 
Cramer, F. Talks to Students on the Art of Study. Baker, Taylor, New 

York; 1902. Ch. ix. 
Dearborn, Geo. V. How to Learn Easily. Little, Brown, Boston; 

1916. Ch. IV. 
Earhart, Lida. Teaching Children to Study. Houghton Mifflin; 

1909. Ch. IV. 
Hall-Quest, A. L. Supervised Study. Macmillan; 1916. Pp. 166-71. 
Hinsdale, B. A. The Art of Study. American Book Co.; 1900. 

Ch. vii. 
Horne, H. H. Story-Telling, Questioning and Studying. Macmillan ; 

1916. Pp. 129, 130, i43 -8 > IOO > l6l > l6 7~9- 



156 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

Kitson, H. D. How to Use Your Mind. Lippincott, Philadelphia; 

1916. Pp. 32, 33. 
Koopman, H. L. The Mastery of Books. American Book Co. ; 1896. 
McMurry, F. How to Study. Houghton Mifflin ; 1909. Pp. 107-10. 
Parker, S. C. Methods of Teaching in High School. Ginn, Chicago; 

1915. Chs. XVI, XVII. 
Sandwick, R. L. How and What to Study. Heath, Boston; 1916. 

Pp. 32-6; 55-60. 
Strayer, G. D. A Brief Course in the Teaching Process. Macmillan; 

1913. Pp. 108-9. 
Whipple, G. M. How to Study Efectively. Bloomington, 111. ; 1916. 
Wicomico County, Md., School Board. " Guide for Teachers in Use of 

Textbooks for different grades of public schools." Wicomico County, 

Md., Tallisburg, Md. ; 1909. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE TEXTBOOK AS A GUIDE 

Some of the suggestions considered in the preceding chap- 
ter require additional discussion. At the risk of seeming to 
repeat, I wish to deal with the textbook as a guide to reference 
reading, correlation, application; of problems, and reorgani- 
zation of the author's material to the needs of a particular 
group of pupils. The textbook points the way to these es- 
sentials of constructive training, either by itself or by the 
teacher's mode of treatment. Few texts, however, are ad- 
justed to the pupil's universal and local needs alike. The 
experienced teacher knows this, and can only expect that the 
text selected will prove so suggestive in its organization that 
needful adaptation will be possible with a minimum of extra 
labor. No one text should be regarded as an ipse dixit. 
Its chief value lies in directing the teaching process into the 
most fruitful achievement, by introducing teacher and pupil 
to the most economical and convenient methods of travel in the 
new territory of truth. It is a Baedeker and like every guide- 
book must be revised and amended and applied according to 
the peculiarities of the individual traveler. 

The Functions of the Textbook as a Guide. A guide to 
reference reading. Reference books may be conveniently 
classified as follows : Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Biographi- 
cal Dictionaries, Year Books, Concordances, Catalogues, the 

iS7 



158 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Atlas and Gazetteer, Periodical Guides, Reports, and Statistical 
Bulletins. In a broader sense any book or publication that 
supplements the main textbook may be regarded as a reference 
book. More accurately, however, the latter division would 
be termed Supplementary Books as distinguished from the 
former, which in library terminology are classified as Refer- 
ence Books. The methods of using the two divisions differ. 

The study of the dictionary. Of these reference books the 
young pupil has more need of the dictionary and atlas, but 
the older pupils in the upper grades and in the high school, 
and students in college, use all of them with the possible 
exception of the Year Book, which is more professional. 
Assignments in the usage of these books are customary in 
English courses, but they should form part of the work in 
any subject whenever needed. 

Assignments in dictionary work would include the finding 
of words by means of the thumb index and guide words on 
the top of each page. The top left-hand word indicates the 
first word in the column and the right-hand word the last 
word in the right column. Spelling and pronunciation, es- 
pecially the former, are given in the dictionary with prefer- 
able usage where more than one kind of spelling and pro- 
nunciation are current. It is doubtful if much attention need 
be given to instruction in pronunciation by means of the 
dictionary in the lower grades. In the upper grades and higher 
schools it will be profitable to explain the marks used to guide 
the reader in pronouncing, but even with such help pro- 
nunciation is determined as a rule more by example than by 
dictionary methods. Derivation of words is an interesting 
study to the pupils engaged in studying a foreign language 
and might well be used in showing the practical value that 



The Textbook as a Guide 159 

foreign language work has for a readier usage of English. 
Synonyms form another branch of study, and one that is of 
peculiar value for accurate and euphonious speaking and 
writing. 

The study of the dictionary, however, that is least satis- 
factory and yet of widest significance is the selection of 
definitions. A class of seventh-grade pupils were assigned 
the task of using a list of words selected by the commercial 
department. Among the words was " accumulate." The 
pupils consulted the dictionary, found definitions, and then 
wrote sentences. These sentences referred to accumulating 
hay, rocks, straw, candy, marbles, etc., but only one pupil 
mentioned accumulating wealth, which was the context pre- 
ferred by the commercial department. As a rule we do not 
speak of accumulating candy and hay. The definition was 
correct but the context had been disregarded. Kerf 00 1 in 
his interesting volume on How to Read reminds us that read- 
ing depends almost entirely on the context. And the nicety 
of diction is one index of true culture. 

Training pupils in the selection of suitable definitions is a 
difficult and indeed an impossible task if the teacher disre- 
gards the demands of the " set " of the word in a particulai 
connection. The random selection of definitions will yield 
ludicrous results. In connection with the study of definitions 
it would be interesting and not without profit to study idioms 
and even slang. The latter may not be deemed wise by purists 
in English courses but all of us enjoy baseball slang, and 
George Ade and his rival in slang, Billy Sunday, are popu- 
lar because they use these picturesque short cuts that in many 
instances are destined to become the main paths of verbal 
expression. Slang is language in process of transition. Most 



160 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

of us use it. Most people say " cut out" instead of " elimi- 
nate " or " excise " and other strange-sounding words. Slang 
may not be a sign of educational polish but it certainly gives 
meaning " a home run." 

There will be less need in the lower grades to train the pupil 
to consult the encyclopedia or geographical and biographical 
dictionaries. In the upper grades and throughout the high 
school, instruction and practice in handling all needful refer- 
ence material should stimulate in the pupil respect for those 
sources of knowledge. Drill here is just as essential as in 
arithmetic or in spelling. If the textbook is meager in sug- 
gestions along these lines, it becomes the teacher's responsibility 
to enrich opportunities for reference work. 

A guide to correlation. In undertaking this important work 
the teacher, of course, will be handicapped if the school au- 
thorities do not supply additional books. In history it is 
well-nigh impossible to do justice to the course without con- 
sulting other books and, in these times, periodicals. Corre- 
lation is simply an application of the laws of association with- 
out which memory and learning are impossible. To teach 
history without referring to suggestive material in literature 
and science is to limit historical study to little more than 
chronology. The increasingly accepted method of teaching 
mathematics in connection with shop and laboratory work, 
dealing with the principles and rules of a particular assign- 
ment in the respective courses, enhances the interest and 
facilitates the understanding of all the coordinated work. 

The textbook guides teacher and pupil into cognate fields 
by listing problems, supplying allusions to related subjects, 
and by definitely suggesting that additional assignments 
should be made in cognate material. When so used the book 



The Textbook as a Guide 161 

becomes to the pupil a real guide into the larger reaches of 
the subject, and he begins to appreciate that the subject being 
studied is not a one-book course but that it has fascinating 
vistas and world-wide sources and meanings. 

The pupil should be trained in this supplementary work 
just as carefully as in any other process of his development. 
He is in school primarily to learn how to learn. But this is 
not all. He is in school to learn how to form and manipulate 
ideas, which, after all, are the quintessence of experience. 
He assuredly gets many ideas from one textbook ; but through 
the school and through the public and private libraries he en- 
larges the scope and extends the variety of ideas so that his 
acquaintance with any one subject is fairly universal. He 
must learn not only to hunt for books, important as this may 
be, but also to seek for subjects, for new angles of view- 
point, for the antitheses of judgments on a particular topic. 
He, of course, needs training in all of this, very careful 
supervision, in fact, but that is the main business of the 
teacher. 

The problem of correlation, so far as the use of the textbook 
is concerned, is really the topical assignment, which of necessity 
makes use of more than one book. Training in the study of 
this kind of assignment must be given by some one who is 
enthusiastic and who is skillful in its technic. 1 A well-selected 
school library is required where the subject-matter of each 
course is at least fairly well represented in several textbooks. 
It demands also specific supervision, at least in the beginning, 

1 Attention should be called to The World Book, edited by Professor O'Shea 
and published by The World Book Company of Chicago. This work is 
written for public school pupils and is a valuable attempt to supply general 
knowledge in a simple and pictorial manner. As a reference work it is admi- 
rably designed to help pupils in topical assignments. 

M 



1 62 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

by the teacher of each subject by means of carefully evalu- 
ated reference lists with title and page stated accurately. 
The pupil needs to be encouraged to augment these lists by 
his own efforts. 

In some subjects it is indispensable to even a preliminary 
grasp of the contents that class copies of various standard 
texts be available. In civics and government, for example, 1 
there are many of these books, some relating more specifically 
than others to city problems and municipal government, 
while others treat principally of the national government. 
Many of them deal chiefly with organization and adminis- 
tration of public affairs. Again, in others these political 
discussions are subordinated to civic and to social problems. 
Too much emphasis cannot be placed on providing the pupil 
with the points of view of many books not only in civics but 
in history and in science. 

A guide to applications. Whereas formerly any problem 
that forced the pupil to think was regarded sufficient for class 
exercises, to-day authors of textbooks sense the imperative need 
of stating problems that stimulate thinking because they ex- 
press practical difficulties, such as might arise, and in fact 
do arise, in the ordinary affairs of life. A glance at recent 
textbooks in mathematics proves how the scope and nature of 
these textbook problems have changed. We live in a practi- 
cal age, which means educationally that we test practice ma- 
terial by its value for ordinary experiences of life. Book 
catalogues now contain such titles as the following: " Com- 
munity Arithmetic," " Vocational Arithmetic," " Vocational 
Arithmetic for Girls," " Rural Arithmetic," " Business Arith- 
metic," " Business English," " Civic Biology," " What Can 
1 See U. S. Bur. of Educ. Bulletin 1915, No. 23, pp. 52, 53. 



The Textbook as a Guide 163 

Literature Do for Me? " etc. It is not the school and life 
any longer but life in the school that compels attention. 

The textbook becomes invaluable when its material is 
clearly presented in life terms. In fact, unless it does so treat 
its contents it has no place in the program of the modern 
school. Teachers of Latin are eager to show that this much- 
harassed subject has practical value. There is hardly a study 
in the modern school that is not being shifted from the tradi- 
tional basis of mental discipline to that of vital functioning as a 
direct training in skill of living. The shift has been made not 
simply to practical problems but to problems that arouse inter- 
est in each pupil by suggesting to him opportunities to frame 
his own problems, and to solve them according to the principles 
and rules of the respective subjects. This is an immense step 
forward in the serious concern of economy of time in education. 

A guide to reorganization. The preceding functions of the 
textbook as a tool and as a guide may be summarized in the 
all-important task of training the teacher to reorganize the 
text to suit local needs. An author may be logical in his 
presentation but this does not assure a psychological approach. 
To begin a text, for example, with a number of dry and ab- 
stract definitions later to be applied may be logical, but it 
certainly is not psychologically correct. The fact that a 
definition is abstract indicates that it summarizes a wide range 
of observation and investigation. It becomes intelligible 
only when used deductively, but its meaning would be more 
quickly appreciated if developed inductively and heuristi- 
cally, the pupil being led step by step through a series of 
interesting observations to the conclusion expressed briefly 
in a law or definition. This is common enough pedagogical 
procedure and does not require elaborate discussion. 



164 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Applying this psychological method to the treatment of 
the text, some teachers wisely change the author's sequence of 
chapters. The revised arrangement will be determined by 
the pupil's preparation and by the immediate aims of educa- 
tion in a particular locality. There may be needed a change 
of emphasis ; some chapters perhaps can be condensed or 
wholly omitted. Probably few teachers of psychology follow 
the order of topics in the text they have selected. Teachers 
of literature may find it an advantage to abandon the usual 
order of historical treatment and reorganize the text on the 
basis of topical study, beginning with the current forms of 
literature such as the novel, the editorial, the essay, and trac- 
ing these back to earlier forms and electing for intensive study 
well-known masterpieces. The alert teacher will not be 
hampered by the textbook organization, but will construct a 
scheme of presentation that is adapted to the class. It is 
likely that other classes will require a somewhat different 
kind of presentation, and no progressive teacher will expect to 
teach the same course in exactly the same manner every term. 

The need of reorganizing the textbook for teaching purposes 
is illustrated in the changed sequence of chapters and inser- 
tion of new material in more recent texts as compared with 
much earlier ones. In algebra, for example, some of the 
earlier texts devoted many pages to abstract rules, definitions, 
and examples without providing, until near the middle of the 
book, any opportunities for worth-while applications. Equa- 
tions were not introduced until the four fundamental processes 
of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division had 
been studied. In more recent books chapters on the equation 
are inserted throughout the work, the pupil finding by this 
means opportunity to apply abstract rules and principles to con- 



The Textbook as a Guide 165 

crete problems. In this way studying is clinched by early ap- 
plication. The older books, moreover, contained no chapters 
on graphs. Problems are more numerous and more practical in 
recent volumes. There is evident in these books reorganization 
of a kind that the teacher must make if unfortunately the book 
is unsuited to his pupils. On the whole, the tendency in the 
best kind of textbook reorganization is toward simplicity. 
The old plan of crowding the textbook with pedantic and ab- 
struse learning is giving way to easier and shorter treatments. 

Summary. The text is a guide to interesting side trips 
or to points of special interest along the way. Its guidance 
to reference material and to cognate subjects means the 
enrichment of the pupil's grasp of the subject. Its transla- 
tion of rules, definitions, laws, principles, etc., into life needs, 
as felt by the pupils and as recognized by them, makes the 
textbook invaluable in preparing the pupils to cope with the 
common difficulties of living. When used in this manner the 
textbook interprets education as a great privilege which the. 
ordinary man will struggle to own. It makes learning social. 
It blunts the stinging criticism that schools do not link up 
with life. And these various calls upon the textbook as a 
guide will result in such reorganization of its contents and 
sequence of presentation as the interests and needs of a par- 
ticular class may require. The textbook when so used be- 
comes not a dead paper education but training for immediate 
as well as remote ends ; and it is fitness for immediate living 
that the ordinary man wants. Education simply for remote 
achievement is too idealistic for the average citizen. We see 
the remote through the eyes of the immediate. Unless the 
present is well understood and gladly utilized the remote will 
vanish in the mists of vain dreams. 



1 66 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. Do you have adequate facilities for reference reading in your 
classes? If the school does not supply such material how can 
you still get some? Have you ever asked the pupils to bring to 
class such texts as they may be able to find at home, or borrow 
from their friends? 

2. How would you develop in the pupil discriminating selection 
of word meanings? 

3. Why is correlation important? Why is so little of it done in 
teaching ? 

4. Can the textbook offer a sufficient variety of problems to 
meet the needs of every pupil? What is the best service it can 
render in the field of application? 

5. Do you use the book in the order selected by the author? Is 
it necessary to do so ? What determines the kind of reorganization 
that you adopt? 

REFERENCES 

Foster, W. E. "Libraries and Readers." Publishers Weekly. New 
York. 

Green, S. S. "Libraries and Schools." Publishers Weekly. New 
York. 

Hall-Quest, A. L. Supervised Study. Macmillan; 1916. 172-77. 

Harrison, F. The Choice of Books and Other Literary Pieces. Macmillan ; 
1903. 

Hinsdale, B. The Art of Study. American Book Co. ; 1900. Ch. IX. 

Kerfoot, J. B. How to Read. Houghton Mifflin; 1916. 

Porter, Noah. Books and Reading. Scribners, New York. 41, 42. 
1901. 

S. R. Warren and S. M. Claeke. U. S. Bureau of Educ. Public 
Libraries in the United States; 1876. Ch. IX. 

Wiswell, L. O. How to Use Reference Books. American Book; 1916. 

Wolfe, L. E. " Many versus the few book course of study." Educa- 
tional Review. Vol.45; Feb., 1913. 146-54. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE TEXTBOOK AS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE 

There was a time when men regarded learning as something 
mysterious and esoteric, a treasure hidden away from common 
mortals and accessible only to super-intellects and to the gods. 
Locked away in dungeon archives ; recorded in heavy lan- 
guage that successfully imprisoned meaning ; made intelligible 
only by long years of sacrificial toil, learning became the privi- 
lege of aristocrats and royalty who possessed the magic sesame 
to truth. The ordinary man was led to believe that learning 
dealt with life far removed from any experience of his own. 
The priest, the philosopher, the magician, must be consulted 
humbly and obediently. Knowledge was a goddess, if you 
please, whose acolytes demanded heavy pay for the flash-like 
glimpses they permitted of the image of the Invisible. 

Fortunately for the race access to learning has been democra- 
tized, not without struggle and pain, but democratized never- 
theless, incarnated to dwell among men as servant and friend. 
Throughout many centuries, by trial and error, careful ex- 
perimentation, profound reflection, occasional flashes of in- 
sight, men have collected fragments of experience and erected 
highways and safeguards of living that are becoming available 
to all members of the race. Compulsory and universal edu- 
cation are watchwords of the hour. Ignorance is the fountain 
curse of human woe. Knowledge is the incarnating prin- 
ciple of individual and social welfare. 

167 



1 68 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

How Knowledge Began. Education depends upon the 
proper understanding and application of experience. All of 
this experience is not available in book form. Much of it is 
obtained by motor imitation and social adjustment. By 
word of mouth many important truths are transmitted by the 
Oriental to his children and neighbors. And this oral in- 
struction is so accurate and so well understood . that it could 
hardly be better in written form. There are many facts and 
principles, however, that require the printed record. Sub- 
ject-matter in book form is one of the means whereby racial 
experience becomes accessible to the learner. It is a con- 
densed history of man thinking his way through the various 
problems of riving to a solution that appears for the time 
being more or less adequate. 

But man has been stimulated not only by problems of every- 
day living to acquire deeper insight and wider scope of knowl- 
edge concerning the world in which he lives. Beyond the 
commonplace, the immediate and the physical is a realm of 
the unusual, the remote, and the spiritual (as this latter 
term applies to all that is not physical). The mysteries of 
this other sphere stimulated man's curiosity and awakened the 
explorer's instinct to find the meaning of the unknown. This 
large field of human endeavor resulted in theories, in certain 
inference and fears and aspirations that became no small part 
of the racial heritage. One finds records of it in priestcraft, 
astrology, alchemy, myths, magic, and in sundry other appli- 
cations of the psychical. 

These two lines of experience, the practical and the spiritual, 
do not appear as constantly parallel or mutually exclusive. 
The everyday problems may contain much that is incompre- 
hensible to the ignorant; such phenomena, for example, as 



The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 169 

the thunderstorm, the lightning, the cause of disease. They 
do, however, represent man in his relation to his external 
environment. In one way or another he is trying to find 
meanings and fairly constant attitudes that will economize 
living by reducing it to the plane of habits. He is thinking, 
i.e. trying to make his environment familiar and so quickly 
understood that each day's toil may result in assured ways 
of using his environment. 

There are methods of counting his sheep so that the loss of 
any may be quickly detected. Communication with his 
tribal members is important, and so he employs gestures and 
other motor reactions (pictures, lines, symbols) that will 
convey to others what they and he can understand together. 
Ceremonies and rites become intricate symbolisms of life, 
meanings in which bravery, endurance, loyalty, reverence, 
etc., are significant attitudes. Sounds are employed, at first 
imitative and expressive of emotional crises, some of them 
short and loud, others long and soft, or frequently repeated 
to convey accumulative intensity of meaning, such as "holy, 
holy, holy." The passing away of loved and revered ones is 
comprehensible to the racial child only on the ground that the 
departed have gone to the world where live the strange forms 
that come in dreams and in moments of ecstatic vision. All 
of this, too, is part of his external environment ; and man 
satisfies his questioning mind by the easiest answer available. 

One might continue such detailed study as the foregoing 
almost indefinitely. Enough has been hinted at to indicate 
that racial experience in the form of instructional materials 
arose in man's effort to understand his environment, so that he 
might fear it less and use it more. He needed certain media 
of communication by means of which group strength could 



170 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

be accumulated. He found some of these media so advan- 
tageous that they became part of his training of the young. 
The latter would become more speedily of value to the group 
if they early understood some of the factors that were in- 
volved in the protection and in the prowess of the group. 
Slowly this store of serviceable knowledge increased. Together 
with it appeared many interpretations of life that seemingly 
had no other explanation. These theories and beliefs were 
accepted as true, and therefore valuable for the young member 
of the family and of the tribe. 

The Meaning of School Subjects. The school subjects of 
to-day are, then, little more than organizations of racial ex- 
perience, both in actual physical living and in efforts to in- 
terpret the unknown. The textbooks present these subjects 
in convenient form so that the learner may become an efficient 
member of society, or one who appreciates the interests of 
his many brothers and can work with them for the good of all. 
He could get most if not all of this knowledge without any 
textbook, but in the majority of cases he would then need to de- 
pend upon some one to introduce him to the facts of experience. 
This guide or teacher would need to arrange the material so 
that economy and efficiency might be assured. While such 
studying apart from other members of the group might have 
laudable advantages (the tutorial system has certain distinct 
benefits), the learner might fail to grasp the significant fact 
that the bulk of knowledge is social ; it arose for the sake of 
the group ; it must be used for the uplift of men. The text- 
book is a record of racial thinking organized for instructional 
purposes. It is a source of knowledge which the learner must 
study in order to apply it to his own problems of life, which 
are mostly social. Its contents came from man's attempt to 



The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 171 

penetrate into the unknown, and this resulting knowledge in 
turn must be applied to life for the benefit of man and for such 
revisions and additions as experience to-day may provide or 
require. 

Principles Underlying the Use of the Textbook as a Source 
of Knowledge. The foregoing statements regarding the 
meaning and purpose of the textbook call attention to a few 
principles that must not be ignored in the consideration of 
the text as a source of knowledge. We have noted the fact 
that a large part of the subject-matter in the textbook is the 
result of man's reflection upon the problems that have clamored 
for solution. It was imperative that these puzzles of living 
be solved, for only in this way could man progress toward 
an appreciation of the meaning of his own life. 

Reflection, however, did not always, perhaps not usually, 
present the desired answers. Trial and error occupied much 
of man's time. As the accumulations of knowledge increased 
he, of course, had less need of trial and error in the fields where 
some gains had been made. He could study what others had 
wrought and more quickly apply their results to similar 
problems in his own life. 

Reflection, acquisition of knowledge and its application were 
common processes in the conflict with the temporarily un- 
known. Man found that with a richer store of knowledge he 
could make more satisfying applications ; he could understand 
more thoroughly, he could sense and penetrate problems more 
easily. In this way he caught glimmering ideas of his own 
meaning ; he discovered that life is a process (is it endless ?) 
of finding meanings and making adjustments that result in a 
closer approximation of unity between the world and himself. 
And so knowledge appears as the result of a continuous uni- 



172 Textbook j How to Use It and Judge It 

fying and harmonizing effort. It is the basis of the resistless 
urge to extend the unification or the harmony already made 
known, as Plato and Aristotle so clearly demonstrate. The 
very fact that man to-day continues to seek in the same fields 
as his ancestors indicates that he is not yet satisfied. The lure 
of the trail is as strong as ever. Man must seek ; he must 
think. 

Some of the Gains of Thinking. The effort to pierce the 
veil has not been in vain. Man's intellectual adventures 
have brought him priceless treasures. For one thing, he now 
has a language. He has complex systems of knowledge in 
mathematics, physics, chemistry. History of political, eco- 
nomic, and social change and progress has written her fairly 
intelligible messages. Literature and art ; industry and com- 
merce ; religion and morals — these now have profound 
meanings and bewildering avenues of application. Much has 
been achieved. Some things have been settled — at any 
rate man is satisfied in their presence. Two plus two equals 
four ; noun and corresponding predicate ; the mutual exclusion 
of the positive and the negative ; the rotundity of the earth ; 
the prediction of comets and of solar eclipses ; the conception 
of human brotherhood ; — these and myriads of others are some 
of the controls of experience that have been gained. The 
student of to-day can be assured of a reasonable amount of 
finality in these and in many other domains of thinking. 

In our eagerness for the practical or for that which demon- 
strates its functional value we must not forget that man has 
spent glorious years on problems that echo mysteries even 
greater than those of time and clay. The philosophic interest, 
the activities of classical scholars, much of astronomy, a large 
part of history, literature, and mathematics are included in 



The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 173 

this class. The learner of to-day must be informed of man's 
efforts in these fields as well as in those more tangibly practi- 
cal. For all we know there may be other adjustments required 
of the race, adjustments that have root meanings in the worlds 
purely spiritual, but which also have connections with the 
physical and the temporal. However this may be, we do 
know that ideas and ideals have tremendous functional value. 
Standing with Plato as he beholds the far reaches of the 
world of eternal ideas is an experience difficult to estimate. 
It is like the northland traveler's gaze upon the shimmering 
aurora, silent, ineffable, majestic, redolent with mystic charm. 
For the young learner not to have his mind brush against 
the noble thoughts of spiritual explorers is to withhold from 
him the testament of his ancestors. 

The Paramount Question of Education To-day. Now the 
paramount question in education is : What value has this 
boundless depository for the learner to-day? Much of it has 
very evident importance. But the question is clearer if 
stated : What is the purpose of knowledge in the public schools 
or in the textbooks ? As we find it in all too many texts and 
in all too many classrooms, knowledge is presented loosely and 
as a catalogue of dry facts. The purpose of education is not 
to introduce the pupil to facts, as such, but to the facts and 
their meanings. The meaning becomes known only as each 
fact is perceived as related to other facts, all of them illustra- 
tive of a great truth. 

Knowledge must be viewed as a system. The pupil all too 
frequently is forced to hurry through the many details of the 
course to a rather hazy notion of the meaning of the whole. 
He is not stimulated to organize the facts or to find in them 
fragments of a great unity of which each detail in the course 



174 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

is a necessary and important fact. Rarely, and even then only 
meagerly, does he sense that knowledge in the textbook is a 
bit of experience, which consists of bundles of interwoven asso- 
ciated facts and ideas. The evolution of knowledge shows that 
early truths became fuller and richer as man used them and 
found them stimulating to new lines of thought. Knowledge 
is like the growth of the banyan tree. It has units but they 
are all connected in ways visible and invisible. Knowledge 
exists in a system. New experience has meanings only as it 
finds a place in the system of truth already established. Evo- 
lution of thought and knowledge becomes possible because 
each additional experience modifies to some degree the al- 
ready existing system. The pupil in the school, then, must 
become aware of the large system, and that his present task of 
studying belongs at a certain point in the general whole. 

Three Functions of the Textbook. The textbook as a 
source of knowledge has therefore three closely related func- 
tions : (i) It presents certain facts of experience valuable to 
man in the past and helpful to the individual and society 
now, wherever needs of the past and the present are similar. 
(2) It gives an account of facts together with principles and 
ideas illustrated by the facts, not in isolated detail but with 
certain connections and associations that tie together all of 
these items of knowledge into a unity or a system. It is, to 
be sure, only one of many systems. But the pupil is now en- 
gaged in the task of understanding this particular organization 
of experience with its parts and details. (3) The textbook as 
a source of knowledge must stimulate the pupil to contribute 
to the work of man other and perhaps better experiences that 
will improve the conditions of living. The pupil is not to 
study the principles and facts and the system simply for their 



The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 175 

own sake. By them he must become excited with the hunts- 
man's zeal. He must learn to discover truth ; he must learn 
how man thought his way to certain achievements, and like 
him he must go out with keen mind and deep appreciation to 
augment the inheritance of the race. 

Because the fruits of the mind have been collected so 
laboriously and patiently teachers must inspire in the pupil 
respect for this large heritage of man. The textbook may 
appear uninteresting, but it is none the less a depository of 
some of this inheritance. It brings to the pupil an introduc- 
tion to a large field of knowledge, some of which is funda- 
mental to human intercourse and cooperation, and the re- 
mainder valuable to his unfolding as another contributor to 
the ever-accumulating heritage of human thinking and in- 
dustry. For the pupil needs to be impressed with the claim 
society has on him to invent and multiply the common racial 
inheritance. 

Well does Rousseau write i 1 " The misuse of books kills 
knowledge. Believing that we know what we have read, we 
think ourselves excused from learning it." In the same vein 
Locke writes : 2 " There is not seldom to be found, even amongst 
those who aim at knowledge, who with an unwearied industry 
employ their whole time in books, who scarcely allow them- 
selves time to eat or sleep, but read, and read, and read 
on, yet make no great advances in real knowledge, though 
there be no defect in their intellectual faculties to which their 
little progress can be imputed. The mistake here is, that it is 
usually supposed by reading the author's knowledge is trans- 
fused into the reader's understanding; and so it is, but not 
by bare reading, but by reading and understanding what is 
1 Emile, Book V. 2 Conduct of the Understanding. 



176 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

writ. Whereby, I mean, not barely comprehending what is 
affirmed or denied in each proposition (though that great 
readers do not always think themselves concerned precisely 
to do), but to see and follow the train of his reasonings, ob- 
serve the strength and clearness of their connexion and ex- 
amine upon what they bottom." 

Important Factors in the Structure of the Textbook as a 
Source of Knowledge. Because it does present knowledge it 
is important for teacher and pupil to note some of the struc- 
tural elements in the textbook that indicate the age, the title, 
and general arrangement of a particular field of knowledge. 

Dates of publication. As a rule little attention is given by 
the pupil to this necessary item in the appreciation of the 
subject-matter in a textbook. Dates are landmarks of his- 
torical development. Most of us dislike to be considered 
out-of-date in dress or in point of- view. The old fogy is cari- 
catured and the ultra-conservative ignored. But in many com- 
munities an old textbook is regarded, because old, as better 
than more recent and better informed books. How many 
teachers and how many pupils look at the date of publication ? 
Do they ever ask why the publisher takes care to state not 
only the year but sometimes also the month of the book's 
first appearance? The usual method of beginning the study 
of a textbook is to plunge into the first chapter. The title- 
page is regarded as ornamental or merely for purposes of 
identification. 

But surely the rapid accumulation of knowledge has some 
effect upon what had been previously collected. Old view- 
points must undergo change in the light of new discoveries 
and better founded conclusions. One of the first things to 
note in reading any book is the date of its appearance, for 



The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 177 

many of the references have significance only in their time 
relation. Similar attention should be given to the date of 
the editions if there is more than one. After a textbook has 
been used for a number of terms new material and important 
revisions may require a very different sort of book, which often 
is a late edition of a text already adopted. The latest edition 
becomes, as a rule, more valuable than the earlier ones. The 
reprintings (which are often made without change) and the 
revised editions are dated on a page close to the title-page. 
At times the first reprint may include several changes found 
immediately necessary. 

It is not implied in the foregoing that pupils in the grades 
and high school will study better because they note the dates 
of publication. What is intended is that in the school certain 
habits of reading and study must be formed for accurate and 
wise studying when school days are over. 

The title of the book. Again it may seem a trifle to stress 
something that really does not seem to concern the contents 
of the text. It may be trivial but it is a mark of careful and 
respectful study to know exactly the title of the book one 
fellows with for several weeks. We certainly would not 
associate with a person very long without knowing his name. 
It is hardly the proper thing to refer to him as My friend in 
Red, or Green ; that big thick fellow who is my chum. Proper 
names may be more individual than A Textbook in Physics or 
Practical English, but the title of a book does give it a certain 
individuality. Besides this, there are many books in red 
and many that are large and thick, and these general attributes 
do not identify a specific book. The title defines the field 
of knowledge considered in the text. The careful student 
will know the title of the book he is studying. 

N 



178 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Introductory to the reading and study of any book should 
be a careful reading of the title-page. Its titles and sub- 
titles should be understood by the pupil, and a discussion 
of their meaning might well form part of the preliminary 
lesson of appreciation in the subject. 

Table of Contents and Index. The Table of Contents gives 
a survey of the whole book. This survey may be meager 
and general or elaborately furnished in the form of a syl- 
labus. A reading of it will prepare the way for the more 
complex organization of the book. If the teacher would 
spend the first hour in talking about the contents of the 
book soon to be studied, while the pupils had their books 
open and followed the teacher's talk from point to point, 
this would prove a profitable method of constructing a back- 
ground. 

The Index serves the purpose of ready reference for all the 
material bearing on a particular topic. Skill in finding such 
references and ability to use synonyms for related material is 
certainly a part of the training expected of educated persons. 
If the pupil owns his book so that he can use inserted leaves 
containing summaries of parallel reading and notes on the 
teacher's exposition, it would be good exercise to have him 
make an index of those inserted pages. This would serve as 
a sort of review. Making indices of poem, prose, or classics 
might form a standing assignment during the study of the 
particular piece of literature. 

Another and by no means insignificant value of the index for 
study purposes is the saving of time resulting from the skillful 
use of it. Pupils waste much time in trying to find topics and 
references by turning over many pages until they find what 
they seek. The index points the way immediately. Forming 



The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 179 

the habit of consulting this guide is essential to all readers. 
Drill in the use of the index should form part of a preview and 
review. 

The arrangement of material. Another helpful preliminary 
survey is that concerned with the arrangement of material 
in a chapter. Different kinds of type are used ; there are 
paragraph or marginal headings ; there are italicized passages, 
illustrations, maps, diagrams, — all of which are so many 
devices to make the subject more readily understood. The 
comparison of the Table of Contents and the chapter organi- 
zation will form a helpful preview, and greatly aid the pupil 
in sensing that the author has employed an organization 
that seeks to evaluate knowledge, and to stress certain por- 
tions of it especially needful for a complete understanding of 
the whole subject. 

In some books the pupil will notice that the author makes 
a helpful differentiation between what is of primary importance 
and what is less fundamental by having the latter appear in 
smaller type than the former. Doubtless considerable ma- 
terial in history could be treated in this manner to the great 
advantage of the pupil. 

The author's style is another important consideration. 
While this feature of the book may not be consciously ap- 
preciated by the pupil, he certainly knows when a textbook 
is interesting. It would be of value to call his attention to 
the author's method in making it appear interesting. Any 
subject can be organized and discussed in a dull fashion ; and 
it is also true that many subjects, at first glance far removed 
from the possibilities of interesting presentation, can be made 
most attractive by a spirited style. The textbook at present 
is not regarded as fine literature, but there is no good reason 



180 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

for its continuing to be a prosy, repellent account of a most 
fascinating experience of the race. 

Thorndike 1 refers to another factor in the arrangement of 
the material. Attention has already been called to the im- 
portance of the textbook as a source of facts ; as an organiza- 
tion of these with many interrelationships ; and as a basis for 
arousing the pupil's will to augment the store of knowledge. 
The arrangement of material must also make it possible for 
the pupil to master the material in hand without undue 
difficulty. The material is not to be memorized; it is to 
be understood. Thorndike says : 

Books could be written giving data, directions for experiments 
and problems with the data and questions about the inferences. 
The student could be instructed to read each helping piece of in- 
formation, suggestive question and the like only after he had 
spent a certain time in trying to do for himself what he was directed 
to do. Such books might be more effective than all but the best 
tenth of personal teaching; if the students would faithfully try 
as directed before reading ahead for helps given. But they will 
usually greedily use up all the helps first. If by a miracle of 
mechanical ingenuity a book could be so arranged that only to 
him who had done what was directed on page one would page two 
become visible, and so on, much that now requires personal 
instruction could be managed by print. Books to be given out in 
loose sheets, a page or so at a time, and books arranged so that the 
student only suffers if he misuses them should be worked out in 
many subjects. Even under the limitation of the natural tendency 
of children to get results in the easiest way, a textbook can do 
much more than be on the one hand a mere statement of the results 
of reasoning such as an ordinary geography or German grammar 
is, or on the other hand a mere statement of problems such as the 
ordinary arithmetic or German reader is. 

1 Education, pp. 164, 5. Macmillan, 1912. 



The Textbook as a Source of Knowledge 181 

If a simple, inexpensive, loose-leaf binding could be invented, 
this might prove valuable in making the textbook adequate 
for independent studying. But in the lack of some ingenious 
mechanical device the teacher can employ supplementary 
reading and group assignments to insure the exercise of initi- 
ative. The topical assignment lends itself to this sort of in- 
dependent studying perhaps better than any other. 

Summary. Because the textbook records a considerable 
portion of the vast wealth of knowledge that men and women 
have struggled to amass throughout the centuries, it is part 
of the educative process to quicken respect and even admi- 
ration for this precious heritage of the race. Each text, how- 
ever, does not speak the final word. Its date of publication 
and the number of editions with their dates show how much 
the contents of the book are abreast of the most recent addi- 
tions to the field of knowledge presented in the book. The 
title of the book, it goes without saying, is equally important. 
It differentiates the book from others, or identifies it in a 
logical and intelligent manner. The table of contents gives 
a preview and a bird's-eye view of the structure of the book, 
while the index saves time and can be made an interesting 
means of review work. The arrangement of material, to- 
gether with an attractive style, is all-important in making the 
pupil's introduction to a field of knowledge stimulating and 
satisfying. 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. Why was learning confined to only the few in ancient 
times? Has this attitude entirely changed? 

2. How has man evolved systems of knowledge? 

3. What is the significance of the various subjects in the light 
of the evolution of knowledge ? 



1 82 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

4. What attitude toward the various subjects should be 
developed in the pupil ? 

5. What are the functions of the textbook as a record of human 
thinking ? 

6. How are the books misused according to Rousseau and 
Locke? Does reading imply studying? 

7. Why are dates of publication important? Have you ever 
given questions on them in examinations? 

8. How would you train pupils to use the table of contents and 
the index? 

9. Have you studied the arrangement of the textbook with 
your pupils? What advantages might be expected from such a 
study on their part? 

10. Do you think Thorndike's suggestion regarding the arrange- 
ment of textbooks feasible? 

REFERENCES 

Bagley, W. C. Educational Values. Macmillan; 1913. 

Boyer, C. C. Modem Methods for Teachers. Lippincott; 1908; Ch. 3. 

De Garmo, C. Principles of Secondary Education. Vol. I. Mac- 
millan; 1913. 

Johnston and Others. High School Education. Scribner; 191 2. 

Karpinski, L. C. "Teaching of Elementary Mathematics." School 
and Society, Vol. 5: 78-86; Jan. 20, 1917. 

Kellar, A. G. Societal Evolution. Macmillan; 191 5. 

Miller, G. A. " Historical Notes in Text -books on Secondary Mathe- 
matics." School Science and Mathematics, Vol. 15: 806-9; Dec, 
191 5. "History and Use of Mathematics Textbooks." School 
and Society, Vol. 4: 918-24; Dec. 16, 1916. 

Miller, W. L. " Chemical Philosophy of the High School Textbooks." 
Science, Vol. 34: 257-63; Sept. 1, 1911. 

Sleight, W. G. Educational Values and Methods. Oxford; 191 5. 

Strong, E. A. " Elementary Textbooks in Chemistry." Science, Vol. 
34: 408, 9; Sept. 29, 1911. 

Thorndike, E. L. Education. Macmillan; 191 2, pp. 164-7. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE TEXTBOOK AS A MEANS OF INTERPRETING TRUTH 

The Observation Point of Knowledge. In the preceding 
chapter the statement was made that the textbook is really 
an account of how men have sought to adjust themselves to 
certain conditions in their environment. Now in this way, 
and now in that, man has tried to understand some of the 
mysteries that even to-day confront him on every hand. He 
has answered many questions. He has solved many prob- 
lems. But new light breaks upon his knowledge every day, so 
that he finds his facts and ideas in a perpetual state of flux. 
To-day's conclusions may be discarded to-morrow, and new 
hypotheses may come into the control of investigation and 
experiment. Doctors differ among themselves ; men engaged 
in a debate are frequently seen to be in common agreement, 
differing only in their use of terms ; each one of us can view 
at best only a small portion of the vast panorama of life. 
Much of the disagreement current among the learned is due 
to the different angles of vision they select in their field of 
study. 

The Necessary Bias of a Textbook. Now, each author of a 
textbook interprets his field of subject-matter according to 
certain theories that he has come to accept. He may be right 
as far as he goes, but his observation is necessarily incomplete. 
If his theory is not based on demonstrable evidence, his con- 

183 



184 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

elusions are likely to be erroneous. In studying a textbook, 
therefore, it becomes essential to bear in mind that it is one 
author's interpretation ; it is only one view of a large field 
that must be seen from many sides, and which may be under- 
stood better from one angle of vision than from another. 

Factors of Interpretation. This fact makes it important 
to train the pupil to note some of the factors that belong to 
the textbook as a means of interpreting to the present gen- 
eration what many minds have found important for their own 
day. 

Knowing the Author and the Publisher. Acquaintanceship 
with the author forms a basis of judging the value of the in- 
terpretation followed throughout his book. He may be a 
free-lance who has no regard for concerted opinion. This 
need not mean that he is wrong, but it constrains the student 
to investigate carefully the author's reasons for holding the 
point of view he does. He may be a conscientious investi- 
gator who bases his conclusions on his own and others' re- 
search. If his training and preparation have been broad 
and thorough, the reader is more inclined to accept his state- 
ments as safe and constructive for educational purposes. 
The personal element, then, cannot be disregarded in select- 
ing a textbook or in following its plan of organization. 

And yet, all too many readers fail to become informed of 
the author's record. The publishers sense the importance of 
the personal element by printing below the author's name on 
the title-page his official position. This identifies him to 
some extent. If he is connected with a reputable institution 
that is known for its scholarship and its wide educational 
influence, it may safely be assumed that he has some ability 
for the task he has performed in writing the textbook. It 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 185 

does not guarantee, of course, that his product is beyond 
criticism. He may be the spokesman of a school of theorists 
whose conclusions are difficult to accept ; but if his services 
have been sought by an institution of learning that is con- 
structive and progressively conservative, it may safely be 
assumed that he is so connected for very good reasons. 

Similar information regarding the publisher of the book is 
important. An old, well-known, and widely respected pub- 
lishing house will not be likely to publish a book whose point 
of view is educationally detrimental. There doubtless are 
publishers who exercise little care in their educational output, 
but the widely recognized houses accept only those manuscripts 
that expert readers have sifted and minutely examined. The 
publisher's name is a stamp of guarantee that the textbook has 
merit, albeit not always merit sufficiently high to meet the 
needs of a particular school. 

The pupils should be introduced to the author's record. In 
the grades such personalia may not be of great moment, save 
as means of training the pupil to form the habit of ascertain- 
ing some information about the author's scholarship and 
reputation. In high school this aspect of study becomes 
more important. The author's name, training, position, and 
experience deserve recognition in the beginning of a course of 
study. Knowledge of the publishing house, place of business, 
its specialties, its local agents, and its methods of securing 
textbooks would be interesting facts to the older pupil. Such 
knowledge is of even more value to the teacher who ought to 
know the sources of supply in his own field of teaching. 

The Preface. The contents of a book are as a rule im- 
personal. Except in autobiographies and similar books, the 
author hides behind the subject-matter. But in the preface 



1 86 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

he gives a personal message, and usually informs the reader 
of the purpose of his book and some of the underlying prin- 
ciples that have controlled him in writing it. Although it 
appears first, the preface is the last thing in the book that the 
author writes. In it he acknowledges his indebtedness to 
the persons who in various ways have helped him in pro- 
ducing it. 

But how many readers as a rule even glance at the preface ? 
It is to most of them a mere formality of publication. And 
because they ignore it the book may be wholly misunderstood 
or at least not used to the best advantage. The average pupil 
does not bother with the preface, and as long as the teacher 
does not refer to it in class or spend any time in reading it 
aloud or having some pupil read it aloud while the others 
follow the reading with their books open, only an occasional 
pupil is going to spend any time on it. This condition pre- 
vails in college as well. Some authors wisely include in their 
preface suggestions for studying the text, but these directions 
are either not known to exist or are deemed superfluous in 
most schools. If the teacher finds that the preface contains 
material important for the pupils to understand opportunity 
should be given them to study this part of the book. The 
book begins with the preface and not with the first chapter. 
It is just as important as stating the aim in an assignment, 
just as significant as knowing the " why " of any under- 
taking. 

The Introduction. Equally unpopular is the average in- 
troduction to a book. The very caption sounds forbidding, 
so much so, that some authors have abandoned the term and 
use instead such titles as " Survey of the Book," " The Scope 
of the Subject," " A Bird's-eye View of the Course," each of 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 187 

these titles interpreting the real meaning of the introductory 
chapter. For in this opening chapter are discussed some 
of the principles and the general point of view, not merely 
of a particular book, but more especially of the subject itself. 
Bearing in mind that the author is an interpreter, he states 
in his introduction what it is he is about to interpret. It is 
true that many introductions are too long and too cumber- 
some. They fail to arouse interest ; their material is too con- 
densed and exhaustive. But an introduction that seeks to 
stimulate interest by showing how the subject is valuable to 
the pupil, and how its present status has been reached (at 
least the main trunk lines of approach to its present contents), 
is worth reading in class under the teacher's supervision. 
Fascinating is the history of mathematics, and the romantic 
stories of how the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Moors 
made their contributions to the science of numbers. Refer- 
ence to such historical facts would introduce this subject 
pleasantly to the adolescent boy and girl. 

The introduction contains the foundation of the course. If 
its arrangement of material seems to the teacher undesirable, 
adjustments can be made for teaching purposes. But the pupil 
should be required to study the introduction, wherever it 
is of vital importance, with whatever guidance the teacher 
deems necessary ; and much of this guidance will be required. 

In this connection it is interesting to find in a Bulletin on the 
Teaching of Reading issued by the Department of Public 
Instruction of New Jersey (19 14) the following statement : 

A book is divided into parts. There is the cover with its cover 
design and printing. There are the title-page, the preface, the 
table of contents, the body of the book, divided into sections or 
chapters, possibly one appendix or more, and an index. Pupils 



1 88 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

should become familiar with these parts, their uses and location 
in the book, and should habitually refer to table of contents and 
index in their use of books. 

Pupils in the grammar grades should also understand the meaning 
of the term "copyright." 

The intelligent use of books will not become habitual by an 
occasional lesson. Beginning with the second grade, whenever a 
book is used at all, it should be used intelligently — not only the 
reading book, but the history, geography, arithmetic book. When- 
ever a new book is taken up it should be first examined to discover 
its author and its purpose (preface), its divisions and their contents. 

Book Reviews. In the intricate organization of disseminat- 
ing knowledge through books there is a class of workers who 
earn a somewhat precarious means of livelihood by reading 
books and writing brief summaries of their reading, either 
critically or wholly commercially. The latter form of review- 
ing has little value in this connection. But the review that 
has been carefully composed by an expert, who knows the 
subject, is well informed of the various theories of interpreta- 
tion and in the technic of textbook writing, is well-nigh in- 
dispensable to the teacher who desires a guide in estimating 
an author's work. The made-to-order review is uncritical, 
i.e. it is likely to judge the book from only one point of view. 
But the critical review judges the book on the basis of both 
defects and merits and is constructive rather than destructive. 

An interesting means of training pupils to judge books would 
be the collection of book reviews and the reporting of them to 
class. Discussion would follow, and the pupil's criticism of the 
book would be formed in the light of the reviews, either agree- 
ing with the reviewer or differing from him with reasons 
clearly stated and supported by reference to the book itself. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 189 

Forming the habit of critical study aids the individual to 
depend upon himself with considerable security. It probably 
is true that the average man of our day thinks much more 
deeply and widely than did the average person a century 
ago. Still it is true that much improvement is needed in 
independent thinking, in critical judgment of the opinions and 
schemes of living being advocated in newspapers, on lecture 
platforms, in pulpits, etc. The pupil, even though he has 
been encouraged to criticize constructively, may never become 
a great thinker, but he doubtless will have the attitude of one 
who does not accept unthinkingly everything he hears and 
sees. Credulity will be controlled. 

In his Conduct of the Understanding Locke affirms what all 
of us doubtless recognize as true. He says : 

Those who have read of everything are thought to understand 
everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the 
mind only with materials of knowledge, it is thinking makes what 
we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough 
to cram ourselves with a great load of collections ; unless we chew 
them over, they will not give us strength and nourishment. There 
are indeed in some writers visible instances of deep thoughts, close 
and acute reasoning, and ideas well pursued. The light these would 
give would be of great use if their reader would observe and 
imitate them; all the rest at best are but particulars fit to be 
turned into knowledge; but that can be done only by our own 
meditation and examining the reach, force, and coherence of what 
is said, and then as far as we apprehend and see the connection of 
ideas, so far it is ours ; without that, it is but so much loose matter 
floating in our brain. The memory may be stored, but the judg- 
ment is little better, and the stock of knowledge not increased by 
being able to repeat what others have said, or produce the argu- 
ments we have formed in them. ... All that is to be found in 



190 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

books is not built upon true foundations, nor always rightly 
deduced from the principles it is pretended to be built on. 

There is reading of textbooks and other books a plenty in 
our schools, but the ability to discriminate is not sufficiently 
recognized. It cannot be expected that pupils will exercise 
judgment in these matters without stimulus and direction 
from the teacher or others. The critical attitude develops 
slowly, of necessity, for it requires range of knowledge and 
thoroughgoing study. Beginnings of such discriminate study- 
ing must be made early in the pupil's school career if the habit 
of comparison and judging is to be fixed by the time he leaves 
the school. And this habit requires attentive repetition in 
every subject ; otherwise by lack of sufficient exercise it may 
fail to function at all. 

The evaluation and adaptation of subject-matter. While the 
foregoing units of study are important in training the pupil 
to get the point of view of an author in his book, the text- 
book performs its greatest service as an interpreter by means 
of the principles and methods that govern the evaluation of 
the material for a particular stage of mental development, 
and its adaptation to the needs of a particular pupil group. 
An illustration of the importance of this fact is the work of 
the Extension Department of the University of Wisconsin. 
In nearly every branch of study offered in its extension and 
correspondence courses a textbook is being prepared to fit 
the needs and interest of the men and women in the trades 
and commercial courses. The textbooks of similar cpurses 
in the regular intra-mural courses of the university have been 
found ill adapted to the extra-mural students. Present-day 
methods in engineering and commerce in machine-shop prac- 
tice, drafting, accounting, correspondence, applied chemistry, 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 191 

etc., form the controlling principle of evaluation and adapta- 
tion. These books, while directly practical, are also soundly 
scientific expositions of the fundamentals in each course. 
They are written simply but technically correct. Many col- 
leges and high schools have adopted these texts. 

Scales and standards of measuring educational achievements 
have not yet been perfected. Complete and final scales are 
perhaps educationally undesirable, if indeed possible, for it is 
impossible to foresee what types of training will be required 
by society for the generations that are to come. Scales and 
standards must be in a constant state of revision and evolu- 
tion, never finished, but ever adjustable to the needs of new 
conditions. But these attempts to determine what is suf- 
ficient and what is acceptable in public school subjects have 
effected important changes in the contents of textbooks. 

It is not bulk but weight that is needed in educational 
courses. Such contrasts as Euclidean vs. Modern Geometry 
indicate that even in the field of mathematics, fixed as this 
subject has been for centuries, there is a moving away from 
the traditional and a closer approach to the needs of the 
present. The practical is interpreted to mean, however, not 
only what is commercial, but what actually is educational as 
well. In the light of this broad practical trend in modern 
education all subject-matter in the schools is being reorganized 
so that what is valuable may really function in the develop- 
ment of citizenship for to-day, and so reorganized also, that 
what is merely perfunctory or formally abstract may be either 
discarded or carefully minimized. 

By means of tests and statistical measurements some of 
the essentials in school subjects have been formulated, both 
for the elementary and the secondary courses. If we bear 



192 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

in mind the historical fact that school subjects are simply 
racial experiences organized for the purpose of making younger 
generations acquainted with the heritage of human endeavor, 
then it is evident that only those experiences which still func- 
tion toward mental development and social progress deserve 
first place in the public school. There are many topics, many 
incidents, and doubtless numerous problems that can well be 
neglected in the public school courses, but which still occupy con- 
siderable space in the textbook. The testament of knowledge 
has not been properly executed. Our generation of children is not 
getting its proper share ; it is being burdened by responsibili- 
ties that prove to be, educationally, liabilities rather than assets. 

Reference to several of the subjects will show how un- 
standardized is the selection of subject-matter. 

The Elementary Subjects. American History. The fol- 
lowing average distribution of subject-matter in seven his- 
tory textbooks and in the recommendations of the Committee 
of Eight shows considerable variability. 1 

table vn 



Period of exploration and discovery . . . 
Period of Colonial development .... 

Period of Colonial wars 

Prerevolutionary period 

The War of the Revolution 

1783-1812 

1812-1861 

The Civil War 

1865 to Present Time, or Publication Date 



Average Per 

Cent of Total 

Space 



8.27 

15-95 

3-67 

4.11 

9-58 

14.17 

21.01 

10.22 

14-45 



Amount of 
Space Recom- 
mended by 
Committee of 
Eight 



12.90 

21.20 
3.10 
2.06 

14.40 
8.70 

22.70 
6.10 
9-3° 



1 Sixteenth Year Book, Nat'l Soc. for the Study of Educ, p. 144. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 193 



According to this table the Committee of Eight finds that 
authors of textbooks minimize exploration and discovery, 
colonial development, the revolution, 18 1 2-186 1, and stress 
colonial wars, the prerevolutionary period, 1 783-181 2, the 
civil war, and events since 1865. There doubtless has 
been too much emphasis laid on the civil war. Fifty years 
hence textbooks in American history probably will devote 
much less space to it, especially as compared with the present 
World War. Much of the material since 1865 deals with 
industrial and commercial development and has peculiar sig- 
nificance in the understanding of the present world crisis. 

Arithmetic. A study of four textbooks in arithmetic brings 
to light some rather striking facts. 1 Out of a total of 1023 
types of practical problems 721, or 71 per cent, occur in occu- 
pational activities. The following table contains the summary 
of a much more detailed analysis : 

TABLE VIII 



(1) Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry 

(2) Extraction of minerals 

(3) Manufacturing and mechanical industries . 

(4) Transportation 

O) Trade . ^ . . . 

(6) Public service (not elsewhere classified) . . 

(7) Professional service 

(8) Domestic and personal service 

(9) Clerical occupations 



Per Cent of 

Total Number of 

Type Problems 



10.8 
0.2 

18.1 
9.9 

21.9 
6.2 
2.1 
O.8 
O.4 



Monroe informs us that only 9.5 per cent of the working 
population are engaged in " trade ". And yet more type prob- 
lems are devoted to trade than to any of the other occupa- 

1 Walter S. Monroe, Sixteenth Year Book of Nat'l Soc. for the Study of Educ. 



194 Textbook j How to Use It and Judge It 

tions. A significant 33.2 per cent are engaged in " agricul- 
ture, forestry, and animal husbandry," but only 10.8 of the 
problems in four textbooks deal with the needs of this class of 
occupation. No problems are given for a large number of 
the specified occupations which make up 55 per cent of the 
total working population. The professions are seriously 
neglected, although clergymen, lawyers, judges, and justices, 
musicians and teachers of music, physicians and surgeons, 
school-teachers, and trained nurses all together make up 3.2 of 
all workers. Only 75 problems deal with the work of these 
professions, and of these 60 stress teaching in the public 
school ; but there are no problems dealing with the ministry, 
music, medicine, surgery, and nursing. 

The obvious answer to these objections is, of course, that 
the pupils in the elementary school are not vitally interested 
in these professions, and that the arithmetic problems in these 
professions are necessarily very few. But in all of them buy- 
ing and selling, percentage, fractions, and the four funda- 
mentals are frequently used. 

Monroe's study shows also that authors of textbooks are 
far from agreeing on the type problems of arithmetic. He 
finds that the frequency with which type problems are re- 
peated is not always in accord with the needs of the pupils ; 
some problems are repeated too often and others not often 
enough. Furthermore, Monroe's preliminary investigation 
shows that type problems of considerable complexity appear 
much less frequently than those comparatively simple. The 
types with the five highest frequencies are : 

At $1.75 each, what will 17 books cost? 

A man borrowed $250 on January 15, at 6%. How much was 
the interest on October 15? 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 195 

If I borrow $50, at 6%, on February 8 of this year, how much 
will be due on May 2 of next year? 

What change should be received from a five dollar bill in paying 
a monthly bill for 30 qt. of milk at 8^ a quart, and 5 jars of cream 
at 15^ a jar? 

What is the cost of 50 gal. of paint at 66f jf a gallon, and 4^ gaL 
of varnish at $1.25 a gallon? 

The following kind of problem occurred only once : 

A milk dealer received in one month 257,395 1°. °f milk, for 
which he paid i-J-ff a pound. The cost of shipping, filtering, pas- 
teurizing, bottling, and factory and office expense amounted to 
I2f£ per gallon. Milk weighs 8.5 lb. per gallon, and sells at 8^ per 
quart,. How much did the dealer make or lose on his month's 
business ? 

A survey of " The Social and Business Use of Arithmetic," 
by Professor G. M. Wilson of Iowa State College, 1 deserves 
careful study. The survey is based on the actual needs of 
arithmetic as stated by individuals in various callings. Pro- 
fessor Wilson's conclusions throw light on the problem of 
the evaluation and adaptation of subject-matter in arithmetic. 

1. The opinions of business men and of educators that 
many arithmetical processes consuming much time could be 
omitted from the course without loss is borne out quite fully 
by this survey of the social and business use of arithmetic. 
The facts go further than the opinions and are a safer guide. 

2. The problems solved in actual life are brief and simple. 
They chiefly require the more fundamental and more easily 
mastered processes. 

3. In actual experience few problems of an abstract nature are 

1 Sixteenth Year Book, op. cit. 



196 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

encountered. The problems are concrete and relate to busi- 
ness situations. They require simple reasoning and a decision 
as to the processes to be employed. 

4. The study justifies careful consideration of the following 
question. After the development of reasonable speed and 
accuracy in the fundamentals and the mastery of the simple 
and more useful arithmetical processes, should the arithmetic 
work not be centered largely around those problems which 
furnish the basis for much business information ? 

5. Another question : May we not hope through the use 
of large informational problems and situations in the upper 
grades, to receive a more intelligent application of arithmetic 
to actual life situations, i.e. to secure the use of more arith- 
metic in the productive work of the kitchen, in intelligent 
buying, in proper form accounting, in intelligent saving and 
investing, etc.? 

6. Aside from the work implied by the questions raised in 
4 and 5 above, it is evident that the necessary work in arith- 
metic can be mastered in much less time than is now being 
devoted to it. 

A recent investigation by Dr. Hollo way of errors in arith- 
metic made by over a thousand children in the elementary 
school indicates the relative amount of stress that should be 
laid by textbook authors and teachers on the various items in 
two of the four fundamentals. Tables IX and X seem to 
be self-explanatory. 1 

Spelling. An examination of the several studies which have 

been made to determine the minimal essentials in spelling 

suggests that if authors of textbooks for the various grades 

would use the words of these lists in all of the texts for each 

1 School and Society, Sept. 1, 1917. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 197 



TABLE IX 

Table Showing Order of Difficulty as Determined by Number of 
Errors Made by 1,065 Children in Each of the Addition Facts 



(Most difficult) 
9+8 . . . 



9 + 
9 + 
8 + 
8 + 
8 + 
7 + 



8 + 



No. OF 
Errors 

95 
90 
82 
69 
68 
66 
56 
5i 
5o 

49 
48 

43 
4i 



8 + 8 37 

8 + 4 37 



+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
8 + 
3 + 



No. OF 




Errors 




• 37 


4 + 3 


• 34 


3 + 2 


• 32 


6+1 


. 29 


1 + 1 


. 26 


4+2 


. 24 


9 + 2 


. 21 


5 + i 


. 20 


4 + 1 


. 20 


5 + 2 


. 20 


9 + i 


. 20 


8+2 


. 20 


5 + 5 


• 19 


2 + 2 


. 19 


4 + 4 


. 19 


3 + 3 



No. OF 
Errors 

18 

17 
17 
17 
16 

15 

15 

15 

13 

13 

13 

9 

9 

8 

8 



grade the problem of spelling would be partly solved. The 
list given in the appendix is now being tested out in several 
schools, and so far reports seem to indicate that there will be 
needed little alteration in the listing of words for each grade. 

Language and Grammar. Several studies have been made 
with the object of ascertaining the nature and frequency of 
errors in written and oral language work in the elementary 
school. 1 (1) Superintendent Thompson of Waukegan, Illi- 
nois, found that the most frequent errors in the fifth to eighth 
grades were verbs, omissions, connectives, incomplete sen- 
tences, and homonyms. The least frequent were double 
negatives, adjectives for adverbs, inverted constructions, 
articles, and redundancy. 

(2) Meek found that of the total errors reported from the 

1 Sixteenth Year Book, Natl Soc. for the Study of Educ. 



198 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

eight grades, 40.1 per cent are verb errors, 3.4 per cent are 
double negatives, mispronunciations cause 20.4 per cent, 



TABLE X 

Table Showing Order of Difficulty as Determined by Number of 
Errors Made by 1,215 Children in Each of the Multiplication Facts 











No. OF 










No. OF 






No. OF 


(Most difficult) Errors 


Errors 


Errors 


11 X 11 . . . . 735 


7X5. • • ■ 181 


6X2. . . . 50 


12 X 11 








65s 


9X3 








169 


5X3. 






46 


11 X 10 








638 


9X5 








168 


11 X 2 . 






46 


12 X 10 








542 


11 X 8 








167 


1 X 1 . 






41 


12 X 8 








460 


8X3 








. 151 


9X2. 






39 


9X7 








455 


11 X 6 








144 


10 X 3 • < 






38 


12 X 7 








438 


6X5 








138 


7X2. 






38 


8X7 








435 


11X7 








137 


5X5. 






34 


12 X 12 








. 425 


8X5 








137 


4X2. 






32 


9X8 








422 


6x4 








133 


10 X 4 • 






31 


12 x 9 








4i7 


11 X4 








131 


10 X 2 . 






3i 


9x6 








. 390 


6 X6 








129 


11 X 1 . 






3i 


8x8 








. 361 


11 X 5 








113 


4X1 • 






3i 


12 X 6 








. 361 


6X3 








102 


3X1. 






28 


8x6 








. 342 


11 X 3 








99 


5X2. 






26 


9X4 








. 292 


10 X 9 








94 


3X3. 






25 


7X6 








. 285 


10 X 7 








. 86 


9X1 . 






22 


12 X 5 








. 271 


10 X 8 








85 


3X2. 






21 


7X7 








. 268 


12 X 2 








. 81 


7X1. 






21 


9X9 








. 263 


10 X 6 








79 


6x1 . 






21 


12 X 4 








. 250 


4X4 








■ 78 


12 X 1 . 






20 


IO X 10 








. 241 


4X3 








76 


5x1. 






20 


8x4 








. 235 


7X3 








7i 


2X1 . 






20 


7x4 








. 192 


10 X 5 








58 


2X2. 






18 


12 X 3 








. 183 


8X2 








58 


8X1. 






18 


11 x 9 








. 181 


5X4 








55 


10 X 1 . 






12 



the misuse of pronouns 17.2 per cent, adverb errors 5.8 
per cent, and 12.9 per cent are colloquialisms. Sixty per cent 
of the errors are due to misuse of verbs and mispronuncia- 
tions. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 199 

(3) The Kansas City study made by Betz and Marshall 
shows that of all errors in written composition of the third 
grade pupils, 55 per cent are in punctuation (capitals 22 per 
cent), 17 per cent in language, 28 per cent in grammar (verbs 
13 per cent). 

(4) A comprehensive study of oral errors among 1378 Cin- 
cinnati children of the elementary school third to eighth 
grades inclusive was made by Isabel Sears and Amelia Diebel. 
Of all the errors 49.9 per cent are wrong verb ; 13.5, pro- 
nouns; 1 1.6, negatives; 9.7, redundance; 8.0, mispronuncia- 
tions ; 3.5, prepositions; -t,.^, adjectives and adverbs; .2 per 
cent, ambiguous expressions. There is close agreement here 
with the Illinois and Boise studies as to; the frequency of the 
verb errors. 

(5) Wrong sentence structure occupies the head of a list 
of errors found by Edgar D. Randolph in the grades of the 
Speyer School in New York City. In the order of frequency 
the other errors are due to pronouns, verbs, adjectives for ad- 
verbs, connectives (other), prepositions. 

(6) Other studies indicate that the frequency of errors in 
the use of verbs is much higher than other errors, and in 
some cases higher than all the other errors combined. The 
evaluation of subject-matter in textbooks dealing with lan- 
guage and grammar in the grades would therefore properly 
stress this unit of instruction much more strongly than other 
units. Motivated drill is here all-important. 

Textbooks based on the course outlined in University of 
Missouri 1 would prove effective in removing or preventing 
the proportion of errors listed in the foregoing studies. Very 
evidently the books that were used in the grades studied 

1 Education Bulletin No. 9, by W. W. Charters and Edith Miller. 



200 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

in the investigation referred to failed to accomplish the 
most needful development in the handling of everyday 
English. 

High School Subjects. Few published studies have been 
made of evaluated subject-matter in high school courses. 
The problem of economy of time is just as acute here as in 
the elementary school, possibly greater, for there has been a 
rapid increase in the number of courses, many of which are 
still inadequately organized. The following studies are 
pioneers in their respective fields, and indicate the kind of 
investigation that must be made if high school subjects are 
to be properly evaluated in the textbooks. 

Algebra. It is quite generally assumed in algebra texts 
that inasmuch as algebra is really simplified arithmetic it is 
primarily concerned with the four fundamental operations of 
arithmetic. Monroe 1 suggests that besides addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication, and division, algebra makes special 
use of the equation. Simple equations are most common to 
elementary algebra. In these simple equations fractions with 
numerical denominations are much more frequent than frac- 
tional equations with an unknown quantity in the denomi- 
nators. Practical need, therefore, requires that the first group 
of fundamental operations of elementary algebra deal with 
this type of simple equations. Quadratic and simultaneous 
equations form later groups of study. 

Monroe finds upon analysis that the operations used in 
solving a simple equation are: (i) clearing the equation of 
fractions, (2) transposing terms, (3) collecting terms, and 
(4) finding the value of x. Clearing an equation of this group 

1 "An experiment in the Organization and Teaching of First Year Algebra," 
School Science and Mathematics, Vol. 12, pp. 125-131. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 201 

involves the multiplication of a binomial by an integer, 
and at times the multiplication of a binomial by a binomial. 
Collecting terms is simple addition and subtraction. Find- 
ing x is a form of division. 

Textbook authors emphasize certain operations that 
they regard fundamental to the understanding of the sub- 
ject of algebra. These are: removal of parentheses, com- 
bining terms, subtraction, evaluation, special products, fac- 
toring, exponents, clearing of fractions and fractional equa- 
tions, quadratic equations, graphing of equations, solution of 
" practical " formulas and simultaneous equations. Rugg 
found 1 that in seven tests the majority of errors made by 
several hundred pupils consisted of wrong use of signs and 
mistakes in arithmetic. His insistence upon the need of 
drill in these operations in first year algebra suggests that 
provision for such drill be provided in textbooks. It is per- 
haps needless to add that such drill exercises should be ade- 
quately motivated both by means of the nature of drill itself, 
and by the illustration of how important such automatic skill 
is in the understanding of more advanced work in algebra. 

Crathorne has defined the utilities of algebra as four- 
fold : (1) vocational utility or the direct use of algebra in 
the vocations, trades, and in reading trade journals ; (2) 
avocational utility or the direct use in the leisure of the or- 
dinary educated man, in his everyday life and reading; (3) 
potential utility or the indirect use in furnishing a necessary 
foundation for a profession; and (4) lingual utility or the 
usefulness in giving exercises in clear-cut English expressions. 

The most valuable topic in algebra he believes is the use of 

1 " The Experimental Determination of Standards in First-year Algebra," 
School Review, Jan., 1916. 



202 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

letters for numbers, including the evaluation of formulas, 
this topic rinding place under each of the utilities considered. 
These are as follows : 

Algebraic operations have considerable vocational, avoca- 
tional, great potential, and much lingual value. 

Linear equations have great vocational and potential 
utilities. 

Proportion and variation are valuable in all four fields. 

Graphical representation and the function have little lin- 
gual value. 

Radicals have considerable value potentially. 

Quadratics have considerable value potentially. 

Exponents have considerable value potentially. 

Logarithms are valuable for vocational and potential 
utilities. 

Complex numbers have only considerable potential value. 

Texts. An attractive arrangement for drill work on these 
topics is provided by Collins's Practical Algebra, First Year 
Course. There is an abundance of clear explanations, model 
solutions, and practice material so that the pupil under the 
direction of an alert teacher has a maximum opportunity to 
fix these algebraic habits. 

Two texts that aim to establish the pupil in the funda- 
mentals in a manner that cannot fail to excite interest are those 
by Cajori and Odell (a two-year course), and a one-volume 
text by Schultze. Throughout the Cajori-Odell text arith- 
metic and algebra are closely connected. The authors avoid 
complicated proofs and start with certain definite assumptions 
of the laws of signs in subtraction and multiplication. Simple 
fractions and easy radicals are introduced early, but not at 
the expense of comprehensive drill in the four fundamentals. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 203 

The books abound with illustrations. Problems peculiar 
to physics have been purposely minimized, for the simple 
reason that first year pupils should not be expected to handle 
readily such abstract concepts of mechanics in the first year. 
But problems from the realm of business are given in great 
abundance. The graphs are employed both for the visualiz- 
ing of variables in equations and for determined practical 
results. 

The Schultze text agrees with the former in avoiding ap- 
plications taken from physics, and for the same reason. 
Schultze is quite right in his criticism that many texts in al- 
gebra " are impressive display of sham applications." There 
is a large supply of drill exercises in the four fundamentals. 
The chapter on Linear Equations has a unique arrangement, 
and forms one of the chief features in a book well supplied with 
excellent qualities. At the end of the book there are 102 1 
review exercises, surely a supply adequate for discriminating 
drill and for individual differences in rate and ability of 
learning. The Hawkes-Tuby-Touton text is another illus- 
tration of careful and simple evaluation. 

The emphasis being made by some investigators upon what 
really constitutes the basis of adequate introduction to good 
progress in the study of algebra must be considered by authors 
within this field. The solution of equations as well as of the 
four fundamentals rightly forms the foundation of an under- 
standing of algebra, and not without thorough drill in such pro- 
cesses, with material skillfully evaluated, can the teacher hope 
to develop not merely interest in the subject but proficiency 
in its applications as well. 

Geometry. Evaluated subject-matter in geometry has 
begun to appear in the latest texts. The Euclidean system, 



204 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

of course, still forms the framework of all courses in geometry, 
and as a system of logical reasoning it doubtless has no peer. 
But perhaps for this very reason it is one of the most difficult 
subjects in the high school, and the textbook of geometry 
appears as one of the least interesting. In nearly all of the 
recent textbooks one finds simple preliminary material for 
the purpose of making clear to the pupil what are the basic 
notions of geometry, and to what extent logical proof is abso- 
lutely indispensable in building up the structure of geometric 
truth. 

The report of the Committee on Geometry 1 makes the quite 
obvious point that such preliminary units of instruction are 
quite insufficient in the matter of time. The pupil, here as in 
algebra, must be exposed a long time to the tools of his study- 
ing. He cannot do good and rapid work until the manipu- 
lation of the tools is automatic and unconscious. The re- 
port suggests that training in attention, observation, descrip- 
tion, experimentation, and informal discussion should begin 
as early as the fourth grade. Where this is impossible the 
training in handling of tools should occupy all of the first 
high school year, demonstrative geometry being postponed 
to the second year. 

A Proposed Course. The textbook writer will be interested 
in the proposed course as outlined by the Committee. 2 

(i) The course aims to begin in the elementary school and 
to continue in the high school. In the beginning there must 
be provision for observation with the cube, cylinder, cone, 
and sphere as objects. Along with this observational work 
the pupil should be taught to describe correctly the funda- 

1 School and Society, Jan. 13, 191 7, pp. 53-59. 

* E. R. Breslich, chairman, Ernest B. Lytle, Orion M. Miller. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 205 

mental forms of the plane and space as viewed on models 
and objects around him. By this means he learns to image 
these forms correctly. He begins to conceive and systematize 
space magnitudes. Inspection of the boundary of surfaces 
leads to the explanation of the simplest geometric figures. 
Through the study of pyramids and prisms he learns to 
classify triangles and quadrilaterals and the main positions of 
lines and planes in space. From the cylinder, cone, and 
sphere he obtains the circle. An important correlation be- 
tween observation and drawing should be made. Plane and 
solid geometry must go hand in hand. 

After a study of several models and instruments the follow- 
ing terms should be made known to the pupil : cube, rectangle, 
square, surface, edge, corner, straight line, point, prism, 
sphere, circle, center, diameter, radius, distance, right angle, 
perpendicular, straight angle, oblique angle, right triangle, 
obtuse triangle, parallel lines and planes, complements and 
supplements. 

The pupil should be taught the meaning of the following 
symbols: =, >, <, J_, rt. Z, and st. Z. 

The formulas that give surface measurement of the square, 
rectangle, cube, and rectangular prism should be taught as 
well as the facts that A-f-B + C = 180 for any triangle and 
A = B = C = 6o° for the equilateral triangle. This work may 
be given in the sixth grade or earlier. It represents the first 
stage of instruction in geometry. The manual use of ruler, 
compasses, and protractor has a prominent place in these 
units of instruction. 

Following this series of lessons the pupil is trained in the 
use of such geometric concepts as symmetry, congruence, and 
similarity. 



206 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Symmetry may be observed almost anywhere, for example, 
in furniture and decoration. The plane of symmetry is il- 
lustrated on various objects, e.g. the head. From this the 
pupil may study symmetry in the plane and in the axis. All 
of this information is gleaned inductively, for scientific terms 
obviously can have no real meaning for the pupil at this stage 
of development. Following this kind of work the fundamental 
constructions are introduced, those based on symmetry, as 
the bisection of an angle and the erection of perpendicular 
lines. Logic is not considered formally as yet, but accuracy 
in speech and construction is stressed. The symmetry of 
the isosceles and equilateral triangles, the drawing of the 
medians, bisectors of angles of a triangle, etc., open for the 
pupil opportunities to recognize general geometric facts. 
The pupils, each with a differently shaped triangle, find that 
the bisectors of the angles of a triangle are concurrent. This 
introduces the query whether it is possible to " prove " that 
the concurrence of those lines is a general fact. The sym- 
metric properties of solids (cube, pyramid, etc.) are studied. 
The symmetry of the circle leads to the problem of locating 
the center and of constructing regular inscribed and circum- 
scribed polygons. 

Following this study of solids as a whole the processes of 
analysis and synthesis are developed, and this type of study- 
ing calls for close observation of form and the applied review 
of what has already been learned. There will now be actual 
measurement in and about the school, so that by this means 
the pupil may obtain figures to be constructed and drawn to 
scale. Some of the fundamental problems of finding inac- 
cessible distances are solved by this method. 

In this work models made of wood, cardboard, or wire are 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 207 

used. A cube, a quadrangular prism, and a pyramid, di- 
vided into symmetric parts by planes, a sphere with the 
equator marked, and parallel circles and meridians, right 
and oblique pyramids, prisms, cones, and cylinders, and 
the five regular polyhedrons are the principal tools of the 
course. 

If the work has been properly developed and care taken to 
supervise the pupil step by step, it will be right to expect him 
to know at this point the following : 

Measurement and graphing of line segments ; 

Measurement of angles ; 

Relations between the angles of a triangle, interior and ex- 
terior ; 

Relations between adjacent angles, complementary and supple- 
mentary ; 

Relations between the acute angles of a right triangle ; 

Relations between the angles formed by parallel lines and a 
transversal ; 

Problems solved by scale drawings ; 

The fundamental constructions, and construction of congruent 
figures ; 

Properties of chords, tangents, and central angles ; of the isosceles 
and equilateral triangles. 

The second stage of this course concludes with the correla- 
tion of algebra and arithmetic. Adding, subtracting, and 
multiplying line-segments ; measuring lengths, as perimeters 
and circles ; finding areas and volumes — are means of such 
correlation. Expressions like (a+b) 2 , (a-\-b)(a — b), (a+b) z , 
are pictured with rectangles and cubes. The formula S = ba 
is developed for whole numbers, decimal fractions, and 
fractions. Computation of areas leads to square root. Here 



208 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

the pupil is led to see the advantage of approximate arith- 
metic, as he develops judgment as to the limited accuracy 
of the magnitudes given and to be computed. 

This second stage of geometry may be given in the sixth 
or seventh grade. 

(2) The study of logical geometry is not taken up abruptly, 
but by intermediary material. Proof of geometric facts must 
precede demonstration. At first the properties of figures are 
studied and the results found are stated as theorems. The 
truth of these theorems is then established by reason- 
ing. The method of proof, however, is always informal. 
When it has been found that two lines perpendicular to 
the same line are parallel, the pupil will reason about as 
follows : 

" This must be true. For, if they were not parallel they 
would meet and then we would have two lines from a point 
outside of a given line perpendicular to the given line, which 
is impossible ! " However, the conventional form of proof, 
given, to prove, proof, might be used in some instances in 
which the class can appreciate its value. 

Geometry at this stage aims : 

1. To establish geometric facts, either by studying the figure, 
or as a consequence of other known facts. 

2. To help the pupil to pass gradually to the logical method of 
demonstrative geometry. 

These topics in the transition units of instruction are : 

Congruence of triangles. 

Similarity of figures. 

The properties of isosceles and equilateral triangles. 

The proofs of the fundamental constructions. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 209 

Tangents and regular inscribed and circumscribed polygons. 
The theorem of Pythagoras. 

These topics are considered in the eighth grade or in the 
first year in the high school. About half the time usually 
given to mathematics, it is recommended by the Committee, 
should be devoted to the study of geometry, the remainder 
being spent on other mathematical subjects. 

' (3) Logical geometry has now been reached. The pupil 
has already learned to understand the basic concepts of geome- 
try. He has seen the need of logical proof and its advantages 
over the experimental method. Now he is given opportunity 
to choose between the various methods of proof. These 
methods are considered throughout the course, the aim being 
to lead the pupil to see that there is usually some definite 
plan that he may follow. He is not left to chance. Five 
kinds of proof are emphasized : proof by superposition, used 
mainly in proving the fundamental theorems of a chapter ; 
the method of congruent triangles ; the indirect method ; the 
method of analysis ; the algebraic method. 

The Committee believes that the traditional arrangement of 
subject-matter into books has no special advantage but rather 
distinct disadvantages. For this reason they suggest the 
following topics for brief chapters. 

1. Quadrilaterals. Parallelograms, angles formed by parallel 
lines and a transversal, the trapezoid, the kite. 

2. Proportional line segments. Parallel lines cut by trans- 
versals, constructions leading to proportional segments, processes 
which applied to proportions give proportions. 

3. Similar polygons and triangles. 

4. The theorem of Pythagoras and its generalizations. 



210 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

5. The circle. Diameters, chords and arcs, parallel secants, 
tangent circles. 

6. Measurement of angles by arcs of the circle. Inscribed 
angles, angles formed by secants, tangents, and chords. 

7. Proportional line segments in circles. 

8. Inequalities. In the preceding chapters various theorems 
on inequalities have been proved. This chapter is an extension 
and full treatment of the subject. 

9. Loci and concurrent lines. Before this several locus 
theorems have been proved. This chapter is a summary and 
extension of the subject. The same is true for the next three 
topics. 

10. Regular polygons inscribed in, and circumscribed about, 
the circle. Length of the circle. 

11. Area of the triangle. 

12. Area of the polygon and circle 

Trigonometry. Attention is called by the Committee to 
the fact that most textbooks on geometry now contain the 
fundamentals of trigonometry, consisting mainly of the defi- 
nitions of the trigonometric ratios, finding the approximate 
values of the ratios for given angles, the use of tables of the 
natural functions, and applications to the solution of the right 
triangles. This work is given usually together with ratio, 
proportion, and similar triangles. After this as a rule no fur- 
ther use is made of trigonometry. For this reason the pupil 
soon forgets this brief study of the topic and it appears prac- 
tically as a wholly new subject when he later takes it up as 
a separate course. Trigonometry should be used more fre- 
quently in geometry, many of the theorems being well adapted 
to proof by both methods. 

Solid Geometry should not be isolated from plane geometry. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 211 

In the courses outlined the pupil has been trained in space 
perception. While studying plane geometry he should also 
become familiar with solid geometry. Many theorems in 
the latter are related to corresponding theorems in the former. 
If they are proved in plane geometry, the pupil will have 
excellent exercise in both two and three dimensional thinking. 
Solid geometry should include the theorems on diedral angles, 
perpendicular and parallel planes, theorems on lines and 
planes in space, some study of the sphere, and circles on the 
surface of the sphere. This leaves for later study the areas 
of surfaces, volumes of solids, and polyhedral angles in 
connection with spherical polygons. 

Limits. There should be consideration of incommensurable 
lines. The notion of the limit as a constant approached by a 
sequence of numbers should be developed but no topical treat- 
ment of limit need be given. 

Texts. The foregoing course offers many valuable sugges- 
tions and is especially valuable for its plan to introduce the 
study of geometry early and in a manner that conforms to 
the stages of the pupil's mental development. Some of the 
features of this course are noticeable in the more recent texts 
in geometry. The Ford and Ammerman Plane and Solid 
Geometry l introduces trigonometrical ratios in the treatment 
of plane geometry. This text is distinguished also by many 
problems and illustrations in applied design. In the section 
on solid geometry there are unusually striking illustrations. 
The text on Plane Geometry by Palmer and Taylor offers many 
practical applications. Young and Schwartz's Plane Geome- 
try 2 emphasizes the " logical structure" plan and symmetry. 
Its two-color printing in the figures is a unique feature. In 
1 Macmillan, 19 13. 2 Henry Holt & Co. 



212 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

the Plane Geometry by Betz and Webb there is a long pre- 
liminary course preceding the demonstrational geometry. 
Robbins's New Plane Geometry 1 follows the traditional organi- 
zation with strong emphasis on demonstrational methods. 
Constructive Geometry by E. R. Hedrick 2 is a rather unusual 
geometric notebook, modeled after those long used in England. 
The provision for many blank pages enables the pupil to make 
his drawings and to work his problems in this notebook. 
From the title of the book one expects to find a large number 
of practical problems. These are abundant and suggest many 
ways in which geometry can be coordinated with manual 
training courses. 

General Mathematics. Within the past ten years the inter- 
pretation of the various branches of mathematics as really 
so many phases of a general subject has led many teachers to 
organize general courses in which algebra, geometry, and 
trigonometry are presented as aids to one another. Correla- 
tions, as we have seen, are common also between practical, 
everyday problems and between physics, manual training, 
and engineering. This correlation is not an innovation of 
twentieth-century teachers. For more than a hundred years 
such combination treatment has been in vogue in European 
schools. One may trace this conception of general mathematics 
back a thousand years and more to the great Arabic math- 
ematician, Mohammed ibsi Irusa al-Khowarizmi (even his 
name suggests correlations of some sort) , who wrote the first 
systematic treatise on algebra and included the well-known 
geometrical solutions of the quadratic and the application of 
algebra to a geometrical problem. 

This ancient scheme has been reviewed in several note- 
1 American Book Company, 1915. 2 Macmillan, 1916. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 213 

worthy texts, among which the three volumes by E. R. Bres- 
lich are the most pretentious and the best evaluated. A 
series entitled Correlated Mathematics for Secondary Schools 
by Lang and Breuke x is a less effective and hardly an original 
application of the principles of a general course. Shorts 
and Elson's Secondary School Mathematics 2 introduces dem- 
onstrational geometry into the first year's work and accept- 
ably unifies the work of the second year. 

S. G. Rich of Amanzintoti Institute, Natal, South Africa, 
reports an ingenious plan of evaluation and adaptation that 
has succeeded admirably with his Zulu students. These stu- 
dents come from the eighth grade. They have been taught 
geometry and algebra in separate courses, not going beyond 
quadratics and circles. They are given extensive revision 
courses in arithmetic, designed to train the student to teach 
this subject. At the Institute a course in general mathematics 
is given under the name " arithmetic." In connection with 
the revision of mensuration the principal elementary theorems 
of plane geometry are used, only those being selected which 
are most broadening to the student's mathematical ideas. 
The instructor in mathematics applies the single linear equa- 
tion as a means of extending the range of arithmetical power. 
Enough algebra is taught to give facility in such work. Such 
elementary parts as are of traditional value or merely intro- 
ductory to work beyond the possible needs of the students are 
omitted. Rich believes that time spent in learning complex 
factorizations, " removal of brackets," involution, theory of 
indices is wasted upon the large number of pupils who do not 
plan to attend college. Skill in handling the tools of linear 
equations should be more and more emphasized. He applies 
1 Century Company. 2 D. C. Heath & Co. 



214 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

this method successfully to simple interest problems with his 
senior Zulu normal students. In geometry, theorems and 
facts are introduced as means to solve actual problems from 
life, ability to demonstrate that " triangles with three mutually 
equal angles are similar " is less important than developing 
ability to utilize Pythagoras' theorem. 

Zoology. The variety of viewpoint among textbook authors 
in the field is strikingly shown in the accompanying tables 
compiled by E. R. Downing. Notice, for example, that the 
wide variation in the amount of space devoted to habits of 
animals ranges from 0.6% in Bigelow's Applied Biology (191 1) 
to 45.3% in Tenney's Natural History (1866). Confining the 
comparison to texts published recently, Bigelow's 0.6% is one 
extreme and Daugherty's Principles of Economic Zoology 
with 30.7% and Hegner's Practical Zoology with 26.3% the 
other extreme. 

In discussing the trend in texts in Zoology, Downing sug- 
gests that too much emphasis has been placed on the study of 
morphology from the evolutionary point of view. The danger 
here is similar to that throughout the entire field of subject- 
matter in education ; namely, that of devotees exalting each 
his own subject and claiming exceptional educational value 
for its contents. The high school teacher of zoology, impreg- 
nated with university ideals and university conceptions of 
mental development, simply transfers this more mature 
study of zoology to the high school, where the pupil is not 
ready for a painstaking morphological analysis. Consequently 
many pupils are dropping away, the enrollment in these courses 
is decreasing. Doubtless the strong movement toward gen- 
eral science is due to this overemphasis on detail in high 
school science. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 215 

Criteria for Science Texts. Important criteria for the se- 
lection of material in textbooks have been suggested by Twiss. 1 
The subject-matter must be : 

1. capable of being made simple enough to be clearly 
comprehended by the pupil; 

2. knowledge that will help in the accomplishment of 
some worthy purpose; 

3. frequently associated with the situations in which it is 
likely to be needed, or some part of them, or something 
like them, so that it can be recalled when the need for it occurs. 

Many textbooks in science, and in other subjects as well, 
have simply restated what earlier texts contain, and in a style 
even less attractive in some instances. Science is systematic 
observation of phenomena in various fields of life. The text- 
book simply records what others have seen. The pupil must 
see many of these phenomena and specimens for himself; 
indeed it is better that he see them first and then read about 
them and then observe them again under scientific direction. 

General Science Texts. An interesting and illuminating 
study of the Quantitative Analysis of General Science by H. A. 
Webb 2 is based on the examination of ten texts, all of them 
published since 1905. In these ten texts there were in all 
3610 pages of instruction, all tables of contents, introductions, 
appendices, and indices being excluded. " Every topic to 
which as much as one page was devoted was entered in a card 
index, each text being credited with the proper number of 
pages for each subject. There were in all 84 such topics of 
minor rank." The accompanying chart indicates the distribu- 
tion of total pages of major subjects. The greatest amount 

1 Science Teaching. Macmillan, 191 7, p. 90. 

2 School Science and Mathematics, June, 191 7. 



216 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 



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218 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

of space is devoted to physics, 1041 pages or 28.9%. Of these 
pages 206 deal with mechanical energy, 143 with heat, 123 with 
electricity, 115 with light, 49 with magnetism. 

Generous provision has been made for the high school girl, 
there being 194 pages (or 5.4%) devoted to household arts 



Pages 100 200 800 


400 


500 


600 


700 


800 


900 1000 


Physics, 1041 pages 


















m 



r\.8tronomy 
textiles 

jEconomlcB 0.6* 
Unclassified 7.6* 



1.6*0\> 

0.6*— CS>» 



Physios' 
28.9* 



Ph j Biology 
12.6* 



Physiography 
12.4* 



Plants 
8.9* 



Meteorology 
8.1* 



Chemistry 
7.8* 



Foods 8.8* 



Figure IV 



and 137 pages (or 3.8%) devoted to food. The large differ- 
ence in amount of space given to animal life and to plant life 
may be explained partly by the fact that only 3 pages are 
devoted to animal reproduction and 40 pages to plant repro- 
duction, a choice of emphasis that has obvious explanation. 
Only five of the texts treat of astronomy. 
The wide range of emphasis by various authors of general 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 219 



TABLE XII 

Distribution of Subject-Matter in General Science Texts 





Hessler 


Clark 


Coulter 


Barber 


Elhuff 


Snyder 


Cald- 
well- 
Eiken- 
berry 


Total number of pages . . 


458 


352 


284 


584 


413 


454 


302 


1. Elem. Mechanics (solids) 
and Measurement . . 


5° 
10.9% 


32 
9-i% 


13 

4-5% 


66 

11.3% 


42 
10.2% 


5 
1.1% 


21 
7.o% 


2. Water-Chemistry etc., 

' Mechanics of Liquids . 


30 
6-5% 


40 
n. 2% 


42 
15-0% 


50 
8.5% 


28 
6.9% 


4 
0.9% 


33 
11.0% 


3. Air- Composition, Me- 
chanics of Gases . . . 


20 

4-4% 


22 

6.2% 


21 

7-5% 


5 

0.9% 


40 
9-8% 


15 
3-3% 


40 
13-2% 


4. Heat-Combustion 

Theory of Heating Sys- 
tems, etc 


23 

5-1% 


50 

14.2% 


44 
15.6% 


112 
19.1% 


54 
13.2% 


13 

2.8% 


16 
5-2% 


5. Everyday Chemistry 
(not under other heads) 


40 
8.8% 


31 

9.0% 






27 
6-5% 






6. Light-Theory and Rela- 
tion to Life 


24 
5-o% 


49 
14.1% 


15 ~ 
5-3% 


62 

10.8% 


21 
5-o% 


7 
i.7% 


3 
1.0% 


7. Sound Theory, and Rela- 


5 

1.1% 


39 
11.0% 






10 

2-3% 


3 
0.6% 




8. Magnetism and Elec- 
tricity 


24 
5-1% 


46 

13.4% 






34 
8.2% 


17 

3-8% 




9. Physiology and Food 
Values 


86 
18.8% 


9 

2.6% 


10 

3-8% 


35 
6.0% 


21 

5.o% 


15 

3-4% 


29 
9-6% 


10. Hygiene and Sanita- 


38 


15 
4-o% 




80 
13.6% 


26 

6-4% 




29 
9-6% 


11. Weather and Climate . 


25 

5-2% 




22 
7-1% 


125 

21.4% 




5o 
11.1% 


27 
9-0% 


12. Physiography and Soils 


23 
5-i% 




47 
16.6% 


15 
2.5% 


29 

7-1% 


234 

5i.6% 


49 
16.1% 


13. Plants, Elementary 
Botany, Agriculture . . 


29 
6.3% 


5 

i.3% 


27 

9-5% 


34 
5-9% 


45 
10.7% 


45 
9-9% 


16 

5-2% 


14. Animals — Elementary 


25 
5-6% 




14 
5.o% 




23 
5-2% 


20 

4.0% 


32 
10.8% 


15. Astronomy or Star 
Study 






9 

3.o% 




6 

1.6% 


25 
5-4% 




16. Introductory and Mis- 
cellaneous 


16 
3-8% 


14 
3-9% 


20 
7.o% 




8 
1.8% 




7 

2.2% 



Note. — Owing to the obvious difficulty of analyzing and distributing such assorted 
material, the above figures do not represent infallible values, but do give an accurate 
relative idea of emphasis. 

In each entry the upper figure is the total number of pages devoted to that topic, 
the lower the per cent of the total space of the text. 



220 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

science texts may be seen in more detail in Table XII. Four of 
the texts are fairly well agreed on the amount of space given to 
mechanics (solids) and measurements. There are wide vari- 
ations among the seven texts in their treatment of heat- 
combustion, light, sound, physiography. (Snyder spends 
more than half of his books, 51.6% or 234 pages, on physi- 
ography and soils.) Barber, Elhuff , Caldwell, and Eikenberry 
omit sound and magnetism. Coulter and Snyder fail to dis- 
cuss hygiene and sanitation (Barber gives 80 pages or 13.6% 
to illustrate topic) ; Clark and Elhuff ignore climate and 
weather, but Barber gives 125 pages (21.4%) to this subject. 
Only three of the books discuss astronomy, Snyder giving the 
most space to this subject. Webb's study shows that much 
attention has been given to illustrations, especially to photo- 
graphs. In this respect, however, the general science books are 
not superior to texts in special science, for throughout modern 
textbook making the artistic and the photographic features 
are strongly emphasized. 

The accompanying Table XII indicates the distribution of 
emphasis in seven current texts in general science. 

History. The accompanying tables indicate that there is 
wide diversity of judgment regarding the relative importance 
of material in this subject. An analysis of six recent history 
texts in medieval and modern history was made for the pur- 
pose of showing the apportionment of space to various periods 
and topics. The period considered is from the Teutonic in- 
vasions to the present. The West and the Harding texts treat 
of the times before Charlemagne only as a summary and review, 
while the Ashley text stops with the seventeenth century. 1 

1 Ashley has covered the period since the seventeenth century in his Modern 
European Civilization. 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 221 

The main figures in the tables denote the number of pages 
in the text devoted to the period or the topic. The smaller 
figures in each square denote per cents. In all cases the 
base for percentage is the number of pages in the text deal- 
ing with the period in question, 400 to 191 7, those pages of the 
text relating to earlier times not being counted. While great 
care has been taken to make the estimates accurate the figures 
are only approximate, owing to the commingling of topics and 
periods, and the different modes of treatment by the different 
authors. 

The texts studied and compared are as follows : 

Harding's New Medieval and Modern History, indicated by 
H. 

Robinson and Beard's Outlines of European History, 2 
vols., R & B. 

Robinson's Medieval and Modern Times, R. 

West's Modern World, W. 

Myers's Medieval and Modern History (revised), M. 

Ashley's Early European Civilization, A. 

A study of the tables reveals some interesting conditions. 
Four of the texts agree quite closely in the amount of space 
devoted to the Dark Ages. There is striking uniformity of 
amount of space given to the Middle Ages, Myers being an 
exception. But within this period there is wide variation in 
the treatment of France and in the discussions of the Eastern 
Empire and of Mohammedan civilization. There is con- 
siderable diversity in the amount of space given to the Refor- 
mation and the Religious wars. While there is a fairly close 
agreement regarding the space devoted to modern times, 
with one exception, there is much variation in the amount of 
space given to the period preceding 181 5. The greatest di- 



222 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

versity is noticeable in the discussion on Europe since 1878. 
In most of the books practically half of the space is used for 
the medieval period. About one fourth of the space is de- 
voted to the study of the last one hundred years. 



TABLE XIII 

Apportionment of Subject-Matter in Texts on Medieval and Modern 

History 



Text 


H 


R&B 


R 


W 


M 


A 




1913 


1912 


1914 


1915 


1903 


1915 


Pages on period 400—1917 . . . 


700 


900 


720 


710 


700 


340 




27 
4 


64 

7 + 


64 
9 


52 
7* 


63 
9 


40 
11 + 


Barbarian Invasions .... 


2 

1 
3 


10 
1 + 


10 


15 
2 


14 
2 


16 

4i 




1 
1 
7 


24 
2! 


24 

3i 


9 
1 + 


18 

2| 


8 
2 + 




1 
* 


11 

1 + 


11 

1 + 


7 

1 


15 
2 


4 
1 + 




1 

1 
7 


1 
* 


I 

f 




4 

1 

2 




The Franks and Charlemagne 


17 

2i 


15 


15 

2 + 


IS 

2 + 


IO 


10 
3- 


Middle Ages, 843-1300 .... 


178 
25 


175 


175 
25 


180 

25 


125 
18 


192 
55 




14 
2 


23 


23 
si 


16 
2! 


24 
3* 


6 
2 — 


Medieval Church 


18 
2§ 


18 
2 


18 

2h 


12 
if 


7 

1 


22 
7- 


Empire and Papacy .... 


29 

4 


21 

2* 


21 

3 


26 
35 


3* 


8 
2 + 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 

TABLE XIII — Continued 



223 



Text 


H 


R&B 


R 


W 


M 


A 








10*3 


1912 


1914 


1915 


1903 


1915 


Pages on period 400-1917 . . . 


700 


900 


720 


710 


700 


340 


Middle Ages — Continued 


26 
4- 


14 

T 2 
*-3 


14 
2 


20 
3- 


27 
4- 


12 
3h 




1 

6 






2 

1 
3 






Mohammedan Civilization . 


3 

1 






2 

1 
3 


10 
if 




England in Middle Ages . . 


20 
3- 


21 
2\ 


21 
3 


40 
52- 


17 
2| 


18 
5* 


France in Middle Ages . . . 


14 
2 


2 

1 
4 


2 
2 


7 
1 


5 
2 
3 


4 
1 + 




24 
3* 


I 


I 


15 

2 




22 

7- 


The Manor 


5 
2 
5 


3 


3 
1 
a 






7 
2 


Towns and Commerce . . . 


10 


16 
if 


16 

2i 


16 
a* 


18 

2\ 


12 
32- 




20 
3- 


25 
a 3 - 

2 3 


32 


16 

^4 


II 


18 * 

5l 


Renaissance Period, 1300-1500 . 


73 


43 
5- 


43 
6 + 


57 
8 + 


63 

9 


76 

22§ 


Culture and Learning . . . 


21 
3 


26 
3- 


26 

3i- 


14 
2 — 


41 


15 

4+ 


Hundred Years' War .... 


16 

2| 


8 

1 — 


8 
1+ 


8 
1 + 


6 
1 — 


6 

2 — 


Church in 14th and 15th cents. 


IO 






5 
2 
3 







* No treatment of architecture except one scant page. 



224 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

TABLE XIII — Continued 



Text 


H 


R&B 


R 


W 


M 


A 








1913 


1912 


1914 


i9 J 5 


1903 


1915 


Pages on period 400-1917 . . 


700 


900 


720 


710 


700 


34o 


Renaissance Period — Continued 
England 


9 
if 


1 
1 

"5 


1 
1 
7 


14 
2 


1 
1 

T 


1 




4 
1+ 


3 

1 
3 


3 
1+ 


3 

+ 


6 
1 — 


1 




4 

1 — 






2 

_ + 






Economic Revolution of Renais. 












16 

5- 


The Reformation and Religious 


55 
8 + 


80 
9- 


80 
11 + 


39 
5* 


103 
15 


39 
10+ 


Reformation in Germany and 


20 
3 


3i 
3* 


3i 
Ah 


12 

x 3 


19 


12 
4- 


Reformation in England . . . 


10 


16 

2 — 


16 

2| 


12 
If 


28 
4 


8 
a| 


Counter Reformation .... 


4 


6 
2 
3 


6 

1 — 


2 
3 + 


6| 

1 — 


4 
1 + 




20 
3 


20 
a* 


20 
3- 


13 

2 — 


13 
4! 


33 
4- 


Social and Scientific Changes . 




6 
2 
3 


6 
1 — 






22 

7- 


Modern Times, 1648-191 7 . . . 


332 

47s 


57o 
63 + 


380 

55 


384 

55 


337 
48+ 






166 

24- 


265 
29+ 


195 
27 


153 

22 — 


215 
31 




Age of Louis XIV .... 


18 
a* 


14 


14 

2 — 


5 
2 
3 


17 
a| 


9 
3- 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 225 

TABLE XIII — Continued 



Text 


H 


R&B 


R 


w 


M 


A 








i9 J 3 


1912 


1914 


1915 


1903 


1915 


Pages on period 400-1917 . . 


700 


900 


720 


710 


700 


340 


Modern Times — Continued 

England in 17 th century . . 


22 
3 + 


21 

2\ 


21 
3 


35 

5 


30 
4* 


4 

14 + 


Rise of Russia and Peter Great 


6 
1 — 


5 
1+ 


6 
1 — 


3 

1 

2 — 


16 

2\ 




Germany and Frederick the 


IS 

2 + 


8 

1 — 


8 
1 + 


7 

1 


II 

l| 






3 

1 

2 — 


5 


5 
2 
3 


1 
1 
7 






Life and Thought in 18th cen- 




25 

si 


30 
4+ 








England in 18th century . . 


14 
2 


18 

2 


18 

2§ 


12 
if 


17 
2 2 




French Revolution .... 


41 

6- 


80 

9- 


53 
7* 


52 


39 

si 






32 

4ft 


59 

6| 


37 
5* 


21 
3 


44 
6| 




Industrial Revolution . . . 


16 

2i 


22 

2 2 


15 

2 + 


27 
4- 






Europe from Vienna to Berlin 


76 
II 


175 
19^ 


100 
14 


144 
20 + 


75 
10 — 




Metternich's System and Re- 


IO 


34 
4- 


16 

2i 


21 
3 


8 
1 + 






18 
Z 3 




IO 


23 
3 + 


10 
4 






6 
1 — 






2 

1 

3~ 


4 





226 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 



TABLE XIII — Continued 





H 


R&B 


R 


W 


M 


A 




1913 


1912 


1914 


1915 


1903 


1915 


Pages on period 400-1917 . . . 


700 


900 


720 


710 


700 


34o 


Europe from Vienna to Berlin 

— Continued 
Italy 


12 


12 
1* 




10 


14 
2 






12 
if 


11 




13 
2 — 


13 
2 — 






18 

2 2 


45 
5 




40 

s! 


14 
2 






QO 
13 


130 

142 


85 
12 


87 
12J 


48 
7- 






26 
03 






8 

1 








I 






8 

1 








4 

1 
2 






IS 
2 








9 
1! 






14 

2 






Balkans and Eastern Question 


8 
1 + 


6 
2 
3 




6 
1 — 






The World in Revolution . . 


28 
4 












Science and Social Organization 


14 

2 












The Far East 


n 
1* 


10 
1 + 




8 

1 + 







The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 227 



TABLE XIII — Continued 



Text 


H 


R&B 


R 


W 


M 


A 




1913 


1912 


1914 


1915 


1903 


i9 J 5 


Pages on period 400-1917 . . . 


700 


900 


720 


710 


700 


340 


Europe since 1878 — Continued 
Expansion of Europe in 19th 




40 
4* 










Reform in the 20th century 








19 

2§ 






Medieval and Modern to 1648 


37o 
50 


344 
38 


342 

47 


33t> 

47 


396 
56 




1648-1815 


167 
23 


265 

29 


200' 
28 


130 
18 


184 
26 




1815-1917 


200 
27 


308 
33 


180 

25 


246 
53 


125 

18 





The omission of estimates for certain topics in some of the 
texts does not necessarily mean that the subject is not treated, 
but that its treatment is so involved with others that it is 
impossible to make accurate statement of the amount of space 
devoted to it. 

Summary. It has been noted in this chapter that the text- 
book is a means of interpreting truth. A variety of inter- 
pretations is inevitable. Only by a large exchange of opinions 
resting on carefully secured data can man hope to arrive at 
results that will benefit the race. The interpretation will 
have value according to the reputation, training, and experi- 
ence of the author and those who have cooperated with him. 
The publishing house that accepts his manuscript sets its seal 



228 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

of approval on the author's work and becomes responsible 
for the general character of his production. It is therefore 
important to know the professional standing of author and 
something of the character of the publishing house. Because 
the author is an interpreter it is necessary to know some of 
his reasons for taking the stand he does in his book. These 
reasons are stated in the preface and more fundamentally in 
the introduction. Both of these should be studied, preferably 
in an informal reading lesson, the teacher explaining the more 
obscure terms and meanings. Critical estimate of the author's 
work is obtainable in expert reviews. These can be used to 
form the habit of critical reading. Open-mindedness and 
judicial acceptance of opinion are some of the aims that 
should be borne in mind when the teacher regards the text- 
book as an interpreter of truth. 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. What is the geographical distribution of the textbook authors 
of your books? What is the professional occupation of these 
authors ? 

2. Why is the preface important? 

3. How would you present introductory matter to your pupils? 

4. By what means can reviews be used to develop the critical 
attitude ? 

5. Why are texts necessarily interpretations of truth? 

6. What studies have been made tending toward evaluation of 
the elementary school subjects ? of the high school subjects ? 

7. Should everything in the textbook be taught? Why? 

8. What criteria should determine the selection of subject- 
matter, in the writing of textbooks? in history, in general science, 
and in mathematics? 

9. What is the chief function of the textbook ? 



The Textbook as a Means of Interpreting Truth 229 



REFERENCES 

Downing, E. R. " Zoology Textbooks for Secondary Schools." School 
Review, 19 17. 

Monroe, W. S. "Arithmetic" in National Society for the Study of 
Education Year Book, 191 7. " An Experiment in the Organization 
and Teaching of First -Year Algebra." School Science and Mathe- 
matics, Vol. 12, 1 2 5-13 1. 

Report of Committee on Geometry. School and Society, January 13, 

- 1917; PP- 53-59- 
Rugg, H. 0. " The Experimental Determination of Standards in 

First -Year Algebra." School Review, Jan., 1916. 
School and Society, Sept. 1, 191 7, pp. 265-268. 
Sixteenth Year Book National Society for the Study of Education 191 7, 

p. 144. 
Webb, H. A. " Quantitative Analysis of General Science." School 

Science and Mathematics, June, 19 17. 
Wilson, G. M. "Arithmetic" in National Society for the Study of 

Education Year Book, 191 7. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE TEXTBOOK AS AN INCENTIVE OR INSPIRATION 

If the pupil has been carefully trained in using the text- 
book as a tool ; if he has found it a conscientious guide to a 
wider acquaintance with the subject by means of reference 
reading, correlation, and application ; if he has discovered in 
its contents sources of valuable knowledge, and has learned 
that much of this knowledge is influenced by individual in- 
terpretation, — it may safely be assumed that his conception 
of the textbook is more fruitful of concentrative study than if 
it is treated in the usual manner as a mere source of memory 
material. But the textbook has not fulfilled its mission until 
the pupil has become inspired to want more of the subject it 
represents. If valuable at all it deserves longer studying, 
provided, of course, that its subject-matter has definite appli- 
cation to a career. 

The general appearance of recent textbooks indicates that 
authors and publishers are conscious of the function the 
textbook must perform in arousing interest and effort. Many 
and excellent illustrations, usually photographs where the 
subject lends itself to this kind of illustration, drawings by 
skilled artists, diagrams, color work of various kinds — form 
the attractive features of the newer books. In books on his- 
tory and literature the subject-matter in most instances is 
entertaining and illuminating. The selection and arrangement 
of type is greatly improved. 

230 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 231 

All of us, no doubt, can recall our pride in the attractive 
school books that filled the school bag suspended on our backs 
like a soldier's knapsack. We wanted new and clean books. 
Mother had no rest until she sewed on covers, which, if left 
to our choice, made the books dazzlingly unique. Solomon in 
all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. Pride of pos- 
session was blended with growing interest in the book because 
of its mysteries, its illustrations, its fascinating tales. Pupils 
doubtless have the same emotions to-day. Curiosity is ever 
a powerful educational force. And the author and publisher 
who have not forgotten the tastes and fancies of their own youth 
will let memory lead the way to a properly modified and 
improved artistry of bookmaking that will serve as a well- 
sustained incentive and inspiration to study. 

But after the author and the publisher have done their 
part there remains a no less significant task for the teacher 
to perform. He must fan into flame the sparks of enthusiasm 
ignited by the textbook. The author and the publisher have 
begun what the teacher must continue and complete. The 
textbook will not teach itself ; it will form a basis of progres- 
sive study that by its very success kindles enthusiasm. But 
the teacher with personality and sincere devotion must take 
the best in the textbook and the best in the pupil for the con- 
struction of a citizen who will think and labor and create as 
his ancestors thought and worked and created for their gen- 
erations. 

This attitude on the part of the teacher must not be con- 
ceived of as a mere exhortation, a contentless appeal that is 
soon exhausted because it has nothing to feed upon. Only 
by means of a careful study of the contents of the textbook 
and a wider reading along lines of its subject-matter can the 



232 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

teacher acquire substance for his enthusiasm. But more than 
this. There is a certain arrangement of material or organi- 
zation of the course that lends itself to the proper arousing of 
interest in a subject. This lesson plan or type of organization 
may be called The Inspirational Preview. 



The Inspirational Preview 

The Purpose of the Preview. The purpose of this particu- 
lar lesson type is apparent from its title. But this general 
purpose has a threefold line of approach. 

Presenting Educational Value of the Course. In the traditional 
table d'hote type of education the pupil was expected to 
study what was set before him and it was not his to reason 
why, only to do and ever try. But the pupil is entitled to 
know some of the reasons for his being required or advised to 
study a particular course. In these days educators are much 
concerned over the problem of educational values, and many 
of the details in this educational field are still uncertain, but 
there are general statements as to the value of the respective 
subjects that justifiably can be told the pupil. He is entitled 
to know the cultural and practical advantages of the course 
he is about to pursue. 

This apologetic is simply and briefly set forth in the initial 
class period of the term's work. It is presented entertainingly, 
but primarily it is told so clearly and with so strong convic- 
tion on the part of the teacher, that the pupil is not left in 
doubt about the good that he has a right to expect will come 
to him from a conscientious application of his mental strength 
to the various topics that, panorama-like, are unreeled in the 
schoolroom. 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 233 

Fostering enthusiasm for the course. The teacher is a sales- 
man of truth. He will either stimulate a desire for the course, 
or he will leave the pupil indifferent and perhaps hostile. By 
means of correlations and interesting allusions he will so pleas- 
ingly unfold the possibilities ahead that the pupil becomes 
eager to advance to the treasure chambers that are described. 
A rapid survey of the book by a study of the table of contents 
and a description of some of the characters or applications 
belonging to the subject supplies material for this kind of 
inspirational preview. Unless the teacher is convinced that 
the subject is worth while and unless he begins the work in an 
atmosphere of well-founded enthusiasm he cannot expect 
the pupil to be aflame with eagerness to follow him in the dif- 
ficulties that are bound to appear. A listless, hack-driven 
teacher will spoil the best textbook ever written. A teacher 
on fire with conviction and enthusiasm will extract from the 
poorest textbook gems of meaning and treasures of life, that 
the pupil will be, shall we say, hypnotized into desiring. It 
certainly is hypnotism in the best sense of the word. 

Constructing a background. The artist of stage-scenery 
knows the importance of painting a back-drop that will give 
perspective and atmosphere to the drama. A man with a 
background of experience is not bewildered in the presence of 
new incidents. And the pupil who has had the privilege of 
seeing the course in birds'-eye view will attack the details of 
the subject with more confidence of success. The inspira- 
tional preview paints the background, and makes it a com- 
posite of the experiences of every member of the class. The 
teacher paints with the author's materials also, using the text- 
book as an artist does a charcoal sketch. This background is 
made even richer by a brief reference to the history of the 



234 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

subject. There is hardly a subject in the program of studies 
whose history cannot hold the pupils spell-bound. 

In a previous chapter mention was made of arithmetic. 
Think of the sciences, and of the languages. Wonderful 
lessons can be planned on the means by which historical 
knowledge has reached us, with vases, friezes, obelisks, rocks, 
and arches as the pages, and strange pictorial writing and 
peculiar letters as the vehicle of the record itself. Pictures 
of these early histories abound. The alert teacher who loves 
the task of teaching will be on the search for illustrative ma- 
terial of this sort. 

Summary. The inspirational preview is not a loose emo- 
tional exhortation. It is emotion controlled by intellect but 
not dominated thereby. The emotional element is strong, 
but it is made effective by well-stated reasons for the studying 
of the subject with carefully selected points of interest that 
will develop a taste for the work; and building up a back- 
ground that will give not only a perspective and atmosphere 
but a prospect that makes the pupil feel familiar with the 
topics and terms and meanings that he will study throughout 
the term. 

Method of Teaching. In carrying out the purpose of the 
lesson of appreciation as outlined in the preceding section 
the teacher will use the textbook in at least four different 
ways. 

Reviewing of related experience. Not only must the pupil 
be prepared but the subject must be prepared for the pupil. 
He has already had some experience in the field of study that 
lies ahead, but he does not understand how his errands at 
home, his arguments with playmates, his observations here 
and there, are related to the work he is now to begin. The 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 235 

teacher with knowledge of child, adolescent, and adult psy- 
chology will appeal to these informal experiences of the pupil. 
School and life will be blended into unified conceptions that 
serve as reviews and new views of many heretofore enjoyable 
but perhaps less intelligible incidents of living. The text- 
book is presented as part of this familiar experience, but a 
part that explains and leads. 

Inspirational previews in textbooks. Many authors open 
their books with material that embraces some of the princi- 
ples of the inspirational preview. Select Orations of Cicero by 
D'Ooge * devotes 87 pages to a study of Cicero and his times. 
There is material here for coordination with ancient history and 
with modern civics. The book abounds with illustrations, 
many of which are taken from the author's own unpublished 
photographs which he took on the ancient sites. One gets the 
author's plan of developing enthusiasm in the fact that out 
of 552 pages only 160 deal with the Latin text. The re- 
mainder consist of sidelights, helpful notes, vocabularies, 
lists of synonyms, etc. 

The Black and Davis Practical Physics 2 begins the first chap- 
ter with a discussion on Why study Physics ? There are stimu- 
lating paragraphs on Physics — a Science, Divisions of Physics, 
Units of Measurement, of Area, of Volume, of Weight, of 
Density, etc. The selection of material (as well as the careful 
omission of certain heavy subject-matter) and the general 
style tend to attract the pupil to concentrative study. 

It probably is necessary to make a textbook rather formal in 
treatment, but there are fascinating possibilities in using the 
colloquial style for such courses. Coulter's Elementary 
Science 3 is really an extended inspirational preview to the 

1 Sanborn & Co., 191 2. 2 Macmillan, 1913. 3 Am. Bk. Co., 191 7. 



236 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

whole field of science. The general style of the book may be 
seen from the opening paragraphs. 

Air, water, soil, heat, light, plants, and animals — these are the 
principal things that make up what we call nature. You will find 
that your fife is a sort of partnership with nature. To live in it 
the best way, you need to understand this partnership as well 
as you can. You need to know how to do your part in it. Life is 
the most interesting thing in the world. You want to find out all 
you can about it so that you can make your own life as happy 
and successful as possible. A good way to go at this business 
of finding out about life is to study first the things that are neces- 
sary to all kinds of life, plants as well as animals, and see how 
these things work together to make our own lives possible and 
pleasant. That is what we shall do in this book. We shall 
study the seven things mentioned in the first sentence. We 
shall study the conditions that are necessary for our own lives, 
and this will help us a great deal in finding out how we ought 
to live. 

For thousands of years men have been finding out more and more 
about the world. Each year new knowledge is added to the old, 
and this knowledge of nature is called natural science. You have 
read about cavemen and other ancient people, and you know that 
the savage men of long ago had a hard struggle for existence. They 
did not understand how to work in partnership with nature, and 
so nature seemed more of an enemy than a friend. There was 
much hunger in those days. Famine, wild beasts, and cold 
weather — these were enemies against which man hardly knew how 
to protect himself. He lived "from hand to mouth." Only the 
strong and hardy survived in those perilous times. But since 
then men have made hundreds of discoveries about nature. These 
discoveries have made it possible to live much more safely and 
comfortably, until to-day even poor people have more comforts 
than had the kings and queens of old. 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 237 

Painstaking care has been taken to produce not only in- 
spiring material but artistic setting for this subject-matter 
in the McManns and Haaren Series of Readers. 1 The child 
who reads the Primer and the four other readers is certainly in 
Joy land. The three-color illustrations harmonize with the 
page. In the Fourth Reader a careful selection has been made 
from standard literature that is applicable to child life of the 
Fourth Grade. The selections are in themselves excellent 
previews of the delights made possible by ability to read. 

The present necessity of making first-year Latin introduc- 
tory to Caesar has many quite various disadvantages, among 
them being the formal and purely academic nature of the 
course. A first-year course that can make the subject-matter 
attractive and develop in the pupil a genuine enthusiasm for 
more Latin is not altogether impossible. A Year in Latin 
by W. A. Montgomery 2 has certain unique features. While 
preparation to read Caesar is the primary aim of the book, 
the author has attempted also to give the pupil some idea of 
the mythology, history, and customs of the Romans. There 
is a section devoted to Connected Readings from Caesar, with 
pertinent leadings and discriminating helps. The author 
gives a list of Latin Phrases Current in English, such as busi- 
ness terms, crests, coats of arms, etc., humorous phrases, legal 
phrases, medical terms, school and college, religious terms, 
miscellaneous phrases, current proverbs, mottoes of sales and 
of states. Another unusual feature is the inclusion of four 
songs with musical notation; namely, Gaudeamus Igitur, 
Dulce Domum (2), and a Latin play song. 

Thomas and Howe in their Composition and Rhetoric de- 
vote ten and a half pages to a carefully selected list of Viola- 
1 Scribner, 191 7. 2 Row, Peterson and Company. 



238 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

tions of Good Use. They give also a practical treatment on 
Methods for increasing One's Vocabulary. Pupils who are 
directed in the reading of Canby and Opdyke's 1 grammatical 
review in their Elements of Composition will feel that here the 
practical benefits of studying English are well presented. 
The threefold division of this book into the Means of Com- 
position, the Ends of Composition, and the Aids to Compo- 
sition is a happy organization through which much that is 
inspiring toward zealous study is possible. In the Thomas 
and Howe text there are quotations from several themes writ- 
ten by high school pupils. Their general superiority must 
act as an incentive to the pupil. 

Energetic first impression. The initial command of the 
term's work is a vigorous " Attention." The teacher is 
ready, the material is ready. There is to be no uncertainty 
about the start, no confused running about mentally, but a 
positive, clear call to work. The first start is not like a gentle 
trickling of a stream, but rather like the sudden bursting forth 
of a fountain and geyser. The first impression will capture 
or the hunt for the pupil's interest will be long and perhaps 
unsuccessful. This implies that the teacher will know the 
textbook and the plan of procedure the first day. Many hours 
will have been spent in getting ready for this first attack. 

Outlining the term's work. Some teachers find it advan- 
tageous to make a schedule of the days on which the various 
topics will be studied. Such a calendar may not be followed 
exactly, but it impresses the pupil with the scope of the course, 
the systematic development of it, and may prevent unneces- 
sary absences. The outline, furthermore, makes it possible to 
give proper emphasis to carefully selected topics. Some of 

1 Macmillan. 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 239 

these topics may be referred to in the beginning of the term as 
deserving special study, with the promise that, when the class 
is ready for them, some very interesting and valuable facts 
will come to light. Such outlines are now usually required 
of teacher candidates in schools of education. Ability to 
organize the term's work a long time ahead and to see it in 
proper perspective will enable the teacher to find illustrations 
and practical applications, without which teaching in any 
subject must proceed with considerable monotony. 

Summary. The Inspirational Preview seeks to awaken 
the pupil's interest in the course as a whole. It is not con- 
cerned with any one topic in the course, although its place in 
the beginning of a new topic has obvious advantages. It 
solicits the pupil's willingness and effort by giving him a 
large and interesting preview or panorama, so well organized 
and so skillfully presented that every pupil enrolled in the 
subject will feel eager to cooperate to make the class work 
smooth and successful. Such a start will prevent many of 
the hardships that teachers encounter in presenting an un- 
popular subject. The inspirational preview may be called 
an appetizer. It makes the pupil hungry for the rich meal 
that will soon be spread before him. 

GENERAL SUMMARY 

A hasty glance over the field that has been developed in 
this volume can hardly fail to impress the student of this 
subject that a very thoroughgoing investigation needs to 
be made into the administrative and instructional phases 
of the textbook problem. To a considerable degree this 
is an American school problem more than a European one. 



240 Textbook , How to Use It and Judge It 

Nowhere else have textbooks reached the high development 
that they possess in this country. So large is the demand 
for school books and so complex is the problem of supplying 
them that many questions of publication and distribution have 
arisen. It is very evident that without the farsightedness and 
the business acumen of the many publishing houses the im- 
provement of textbooks would have been impossible. The 
textbook publisher is essentially an educator. He feels the 
pulse of the educational world. He is quick to grasp the best of 
the new and to make it part of the books for the coming genera- 
tion. Instead of fewer books, we need many more of the most 
highly developed examples of scientific and artistic bookmaking. 

In the hands of the skillful teacher the textbook is a won- 
derful tool whose mastery will make independent studying 
effective and fascinating. It is also a miniature exhibit of 
world thinking. Like a Baedeker it guides and directs. To 
the careful student it interprets what man has thought and 
wrought ; and as the learner grasps some of its meanings he 
is inspired to delve into the mysteries of intellectual treasures 
for the glory of life. 

Illustrations of Directions in Books and in Class Procedure. 
An example of how the various suggestions in the chapters 
on textbook usage may be applied is furnished by Lewis and 
Hosic in their Practical English for High Schools. They 
begin by calling the pupil's attention to the following points : 

THE USE OF THIS TEXTBOOK 

Spend one study period in examining this book. Discover the 
following : 

i. The purpose it is meant to serve. 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 241 

2. The manner in which it is intended to be used. 

3. What parts of it are most interesting. 

4. In what ways it will be useful to you. 

5. Who wrote it, and when and by whom it was published. 

6. How the index is arranged. 

7. Whether there are other features of the book worth con- 
sidering. Be prepared to discuss with your classmates the points 
outlined above. In discussion try to be clear and courteous. 

First of all, learn how to study. 

Then follow several paragraphs on the value of the course, how 
to learn, and similar material. 

When authors keep in mind the important fact that the 
textbook is a tool, a source of knowledge, an interpretation of 
truth, a guide to supplementary and reference reading, and 
also a vehicle of inspiration, the arrangement of material and 
the introduction of directive suggestions will be found in more 
abundance than is now common even in the most recent texts. 
Many of the books would become much more effective if they 
contained less subject-matter and more directions for the mas- 
tery of the course. If these directions are copious in the be- 
ginning of a topic and gradually decrease in number as the 
pupil grasps the meaning of each unit in the course there will 
be little danger of oversupplying him with needful helps. 

The following description of classroom technic is taken from 
Supervised Study in American History l and illustrates how 
the author, Miss Mabel Simpson, applied some of the sugges- 
tions regarding the use of the textbook. 

1 Macmillan, 1918. 



242 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

Definite Instruction in "How to Study" 
the proper use of the textbook 

I. The Problem for consideration, or What must be understood : 
What people were the first among the early leaders of civiliza- 
tion, and why ? 

It is well at the beginning of the term to state the problem for 
the pupils. Then impress it upon their attention by frequently 
having it restated. In this way, they will acquire the habit of 
having a definite thing in mind when they take up their books, 
and, from the beginning, can be taught to consider and collect 
only such data as have a definite bearing upon the problem to be 
solved. 

This problem should be written upon the board. Then ask the 
pupils how they are to find any information which will help them 
to understand this topic. This will result in their realizing their 
need for the textbook. 

II. Instruction in "How to Study." How to use the Text- 
book. (Teacher working with the class.) 

Directions. Given by the teacher : 

i. How many things can you tell me about this book after 
reading what is printed on the outside only ? 

The Title Page. 2. Turn to the first page containing print- 
ing. Read it; compare it with the words on the outside of the 
book and tell me what you find on this page which you did not 
find on the outside cover. 

3. What is this page called and why? 

(If no one knows, tell the class and write name on the board.) 

The Preface. 4. Read the preface and be ready to tell why a 
book needs a preface. 

(Allow sufficient time for each to read. Then discuss the 
meaning of the word and why the authors placed this brief state- 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 243 

ment at the beginning of their book ; also its value to us as readers. 
Encourage the pupils to ask questions about it.) 

The Contents. 5. Why does a book have a table of contents, 
and why is it placed in the front of the book ? 

6. How many chapters does this book contain ? 

7. In what way does the " Contents" help a reader? 

8. Read the titles of the chapters and select the one you think 
may give us any information about the first people to be the leaders 
of civilization. 

Chapter I. 1. Glance at the first page of this chapter, and 
without reading it, tell me what you notice about this page. (Dif- 
ferent types of print. Explain the reason for using these different 
types, if the pupils cannot.) 

2. How many paragraphs do you find on the heading "America 
— The New Part"?— (Three.) 

3. Select the proper names on this page which might be difficult 
for you to pronounce. — (Martin Waldseemiiller, Americus 
Vespucius.) 

4. Find the end of the chapter, and see if you can obtain any 
help. — (P. 18, "Pronouncing List.") (Explain to the class that 
some books have this list at the end of the book rather than after 
each chapter. Also tell them how to find the proper pronuncia- 
tion, if the book has no list.) 

5. On page 2, why are two sentences written in different type? 
Give term for this. — (Italics.) 

6. Quickly read the three paragraphs under the first topic, and 
decide whether they are of value to us in collecting information 
concerning our problem. 

(Obtain the opinion of the class by asking how many think it is 
valuable, and how many do not. If the majority of the class have 
made the right decision, call upon a pupil who is incorrect or 
uncertain, to give his reason ; then help him to see why he is wrong. 
Write a brief statement of the important fact, if any, on the board 
under the statement of the problem. At every step of the lesson, 



244 Textbook, How to Use It and Judge It 

encourage the pupils to ask questions. It is the best proof we can 
have of definite, purposive thinking.) 

7. In the same way, read the next two paragraphs. 

8. Consult the small map on next page for location of Nile and 
Euphrates rivers, — Egypt and Chaldea. Then locate these places 
with relation to America, on a wall map of the world. 

9. Before reading about the Egyptians, question the class to 
aid them in determining what important facts should be looked 
for. Some such brief outline should be written on the board before 
beginning to read : 

The Egyptians. Who they were. 

Where they lived. 
What they did. 

10. Under the topic Egyptians, decide how many paragraphs 
or pages are devoted to the subject. (Pp. 4-8.) 

11. When should we make a careful study of the illustrations 
a book contains ? 

12. Read silently all information given about the Egyptians. 
Then make a list of the great things they accomplished. (Allow 
sufficient time for this. Work with any who seem to have diffi- 
culty.) 

When this has been done, the lesson should be concluded at this 
point. Do not attempt to determine how well they have mastered 
the facts contained in the subject-matter studied. This will be 
done in the review on the following day. Our chief purpose at this 
time is to attempt to create a liking for history, by giving the class 
a glimpse of how to study it. 

Since this is the first lesson where a textbook is used, it seems 
more advisable for the teacher to work with the class as a whole. 
The suggestions contained in the above lesson have, therefore, been 
planned for the entire class. 



The Textbook as an Incentive or Inspiration 245 

QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

i. Do you find that the authors of your textbooks employ any 
means of arousing interest in the subjects? What are these 
means ? 

2. What are the functions of the inspirational preview? 

3. How would you teach by the inspirational preview method ? 
Should lessons of this type be employed frequently? When are 
they of special importance? 

4. What are some of the difficulties in the way of organizing 
the term's work a long time in advance? 

5. What are some of the benefits that might result from the 
teacher organizing a Lesson Plan Book? 

6. What do you consider to be your greatest duty and privilege 
as a teacher? 

REFERENCES 

Haywakd, F. The Lesson in Appreciation. Macmillan; 1915. 
Simpson, Mabel. Supervised Study in American History. Macmillan; 
1918. 



APPENDIX 

The - following lists of words have been compiled by Pro- 
fessor Hugh Clark Preyer of the University of Colorado. 
They are being used in several of the western schools. The 
selection seems to the writer so valuable that it is given here 
as one of the latest and best guides to writers of Spelling 
books. 

A Minimal Spelling List, Arranged by Grades 

The words indicated by asterisk are the 169 found in Ayres's Meas- 
uring Scale for Ability in Spelling, but in fewer than 6 of our 12 lists. 







Second Grade 








(343 words) 




add 


ate 


begin 


boy 


after 


August 


*begun 


bread 


ago 


aunt 


belong 


brick 


air 


away 


best 


bright 


alone 


bad 


better 


bring 


also 


ball 


bill 


brother 


am 


*band 


bird 


*brought 


among 


bank 


black 


burn 


an 


basket 


block 


but 


ankle 


be 


blue 


buy 


are 


been 


boat 


by 


arm 


bear 


body 


call 


as 


bed 


boil 


came 


ask 


before 


book 


*can 


asleep 


beg 


both 


candy 


at 


*began 


box 


card 



247 



248 



Appendix 



care 


door 


found 


having 


*carry 


down 


*four 


he 


cart 


draw 


*f ourth 


head 


case 


dress 


fowl 


hear 


cat 


drink 


freeze 


heard 


catch 


drop 


fresh 


heart 


cent 


*drown 


from 


♦held 


chair 


drowned 


front 


help 


change 


dust 


full 


her 


chicken 


each 


game 


here 


church 


ear 


garden 


high 


*claim 


early 


get 


hill 


clerk 


east 


getting 


him 


coat 


*eight 


girl 


himself 


cold 


even 


give 


his 


comb 


*evening 


go 


home 


come 


ever 


*God 


horse 


copy 


every 


goes 


*hot 


cost 


eye 


going 


house 


could 


face 


gold 


how 


count 


fair 


gone 


hungry 


*cover 


fall 


good 


hurt 


cow 


far 


got 


I 


cross 


fast 


grass 


ice 


cup 


father 


great 


if 


cut 


feed 


green 


ill 


dark 


feet 


ground 


in 


dead 


fell 


grow 


into 


dear 


fence 


guess 


invite 


December 


few 


had 


is 


deep 


fill 


hair 


it 


did 


find 


half 


jump 


dirt 


fine 


hand 


keep 


do 


first 


hang 


kind 


doctor 


*five 


*happen 


knew 


*does 


fix 


happy 


knife 


dog 


flower 


hard 


laid 


dollar 


fly 


has 


large 


done 


foot 


hat 


late 


don't 


for 


have 


lay 



Appendix 



249 



lazy 


put 


theater 


Third Grade 


leaf 


*ran 


them 




leg 


read 


then 


{408 words) 


lesson 


red 


these 


about 


let 


road 


they 


above 


letter 


root 


this 


across 


long 


rose 


three 


act 


*lost 


round 


time 


addition 


make 


run 


to 


afraid 


making 


said 


told 


again 


me 


saw 


took 


*alike 


meet 


say 


top 


all 


men 


*says 


two 


alley 


more 


school 


under 


allow 


mother 


seed 


up 


almost 


mouse 


seven 


us 


along 


mouth 


shall 


was 


always 


my 


she 


wash 


animal 


near 


shoe 


water 


another 


never 


shut 


we 


answer 


new 


sick 


well 


any 


next 


sister 


went 


anything 


nice 


sit 


were 


anyway 


*nine 


six 


west 


appear 


no 


sky 


what 


apple 


*nor 


snow 


white 


April 


nose 


so 


who 


around 


not 


soap 


will 


arrest 


of 


*stole 


wind 


attend 


off 


store 


window 


autumn 


on 


story 


word 


avoid 


one 


study 


would 


baby 


only 


tail 


write 


back 


our 


take 


writing 


banana 


out 


teeth 


wrote 


barn 


own 


ten 


yes 


bath 


paper 


than 


you 


beauty 


pencil 


thank 


young 


because 


pink 


that 


your 


become 


push 


the 




behind 



250 



Appendix 



beneath 


close 


excuse 


inquire 


beside 


cloth 


explain 


intend 


between 


*clothing 


fail 


iron 


big 


coarse 


family 


island 


bite 


color 


farm 


*its 


blossom 


coming 


farther 


jail 


board 


common 


*February 


June 


born 


company 


feel 


July 


bottom 


control 


fellow 


just 


bought 


cook 


field 


kill 


branch 


corner 


fierce 


kitchen 


break 


cotton 


figure 


knee 


breakfast 


cough 


floor 


knock 


breath 


* country 


flour 


knot 


bridge 


cousin 


fond 


know 


broke 


crowd 


*forget 


lady 


brown 


daily 


fortune 


last 


build 


danger 


*forty 


laugh 


built 


date 


*Friday 


learn 


bundle 


daughter 


friend 


leather 


bury 


deserve 


fruit 


leave 


busy 


die 


gave 


left 


butter 


*died 


glad 


lemon 


button 


dinner 


good-by 


lightning 


cake 


dish 


grade 


like 


car 


divide 


grain 


listen 


*carried 


double 


grocery 


little 


caught 


drive 


hall 


live 


center 


*driven 


heavy 


look 


chase 


duty 


herself 


lose 


child 


earn 


hoarse 


lot 


children 


earth 


hold 


loud 


chimney 


*easy 


hole 


love 


choose 


eat 


honest 


low 


* Christmas 


egg 


honey 


machine 


circle 


else 


hope 


many 


city 


empty 


hour 


mark 


*cities 


end 


hundred 


master 


clean 


enough 


inch 


measure 


climb 


except 


*inform 


meat 



Appendix 



251 



mice 


once 


ride 


stay 


might 


open 


right 


still 


mile 


orange 


ring 


stood 


milk 


other 


room 


stopped 


mill 


ought 


rough 


street 


minute 


over 


running 


♦struck 


miss 


pair 


safe 


sugar 


mistake 


parlor 


♦salt 


suit 


*mister 


part 


Saturday 


summer 


mistress 


party 


scissors 


sun 


Monday 


people 


see 


Sunday 


money 


perhaps 


*seen 


supper 


month 


pick 


sell 


sure 


morning 


picture 


send 


swim 


*motion 


pie 


sent 


table 


move 


piece 


September 


talk 


much 


place 


severe 


taste 


music 


plain 


shake 


teacher 


must 


play 


*shed 


tell 


myself 


pleasant 


ship 


themselves 


name 


point 


short 


there 


naughty 


poor 


should 


thing 


♦nearly 


pound 


show 


think 


need 


pretty 


side 


third 


news 


*primary 


sing 


thought 


nickel 


prompt 


sleep 


thread 


night 


*prove 


sleigh 


threw 


ninth 


quart 


small 


through 


noise 


quarter 


sold 


throw 


noon 


quick 


some 


Thursday 


north 


< quiet 


something 


tire 


nothing 


quite 


♦sometimes 


tired 


notice 


race 


soon 


to-day 


now 


raise 


sorry 


toward 


nut 


reach 


south 


town 


obey 


ready 


speak 


traction 


o'clock 


recess 


spell 


tree 


October 


remember 


spring 


truly 


often 


♦rest 


stand 


truth 


old 


ribbon 


star 


try 



252 



Appendix 



tried 


wood 


chocolate 


guide 


Tuesday 


work 


circus 


gun 


turn 


worth 


civil 


hammer 


twelve 


wrap 


class 


healthy 


ugly 


wrapped 


club 


heat 


uncle 


written 


coffee 


history 


until 


yard 


collar 


hoping 


upon 


year 


*contract 


human 


use 


yellow 


corn 


*husband 


used 


yesterday 


cottage 


idea 


vacation 


yet 


country- 


important 


very 




dentist 


Indian 


voice 


Fourth Grade 


depot 


inside 


wagon 
wait 


(216 words) 


desert 
discover 


*itself 
justice 


walk 


able 


dismiss 


kept 


wall 


according 


ditch 


king 


want 


account 


division 


labor 


warm 


ache 


dream 


land 


watch 


age 


engine 


lawn 


way 


alarm 


enjoy 


life 


wear 


allowed 


escape 


light 


week 


angel 


*examination 


line 


wet 


attack 


expect 


linen 


wheel 


author 


failure 


lonesome 


when 


beginning 


fashion 


lying 


where 


believe 


fear 


manage 


whether 


biscuit 


feather 


man 


which 


blanket 


felt 


March 


while 


breathe 


fight 


market 


whisper 


burglar 


finish 


matter 


whistle 


bushel 


fire 


may 


whole 


cabbage 


food 


*mayor 


whose 


*camp 


form 


mean 


why 


canoe 


forward 


metal 


winter 


capital 


furnace 


middle 


wish 


*capture 


furniture 


mind 


with 


carriage 


grammar 


mine 


without 


chain 


*grand 


mischief 


woman 


*chief 


guard 


most 



Appendix 



253 



mountain 


*region 


thousand 


although 


*navy 


remain 


throat 


angry 


neighbor 


roar 


thunder 


anxious 


neither 


roof 


together 


army 


ninety 


*rule 


to-morrow 


arrive 


number 


same 


tongue 


article 


orchard 


saucer 


too 


attention 


outside 


scholar 


track 


auto 


palace 


second 


train 


automobile 


parade 


seem 


travel 


awful 


park 


sentence 


traveler 


bathe 


pass 


separate 


trial 


beat 


past 


set 


trip 


beautiful 


pay 


several 


trouble 


*became 


peace 


sew 


umbrella 


bicycle 


period 


shadow 


unless 


birth 


piano 


shore 


village 


blow 


pigeon 


shoulder 


visit 


bruise 


please 


since 


visitor 


business 


pleasure 


sir 


waist 


*cannot 


pledge 


skin 


war 


carpet 


pocket 


slide 


weather 


cause 


poem 


smoke 


weigh 


cement 


poison 


soldier 


win 


chance 


police 


son 


women 


coast 


post 


stairs 


won 


collect 


potato 


start 


wonder 


column 


practice 


station 


wonderful 


comfort 


present 


stone 


world 


concern 


president 


stop 


wreck 


concert 


pumpkin 


straight 


wrong 


couple 


quarrel 


strong 




course 


question 


such 


Fifth Grade 


court 


rain 
raisin 


sweep 
taught 


(186 words) 


cushion 
damage 


*rapid 


teach 


address 


dangerous 


reason 


term 


afternoon 


*dash 


receive 


thick 


against 


debt 


recent 


those 


agreeable 


defeat 


regard 


though 


already 


describe 



254 



Appendix 



destroy 


journey 


proper 


Thanksgiving 


different 


judge 


railroad 


♦thus 


direction 


language 


rather 


ticket 


disappoint 


lawyer 


real 


to-night 


dispute 


length 


reply 


true 


♦district 


level 


rise 


union 


doubt 


loose 


river 


useful 


♦drill 


♦loss 


roll 


usual 


edge 


mail 


saddle 


vegetable 


equator 


match 


sail 


♦victim 


♦especially 


maybe 


scratch 


view 


everything 


medicine 


sea 


♦vote 


exercise 


merely 


secret 


wake 


expense 


modern 


section 


waste 


♦fact 


narrow 


select 


wave 


familiar 


nature 


sense 


weak 


famous 


nephew 


serious 


Wednesday 


^favorite 


none 


serve 


wide 


^.fever 


November 


settle 


within 


fifth 


object 


shepherd 


wound 


♦final 


occupy 


sight 


woolen 


finger 


ocean 


sincerely 




♦firm 


opinion 


size 


Sixth Grade 


♦folks 
forest 


♦organize 
♦organization 


song 
square 


(755 words) 


♦free 


orphan 


♦stamp 


absent 


frightened 


ourselves 


state 


accept 


♦gentleman 


page 


steal 


acquaintance 


glass 


passenger 


stock 


advantage 


government 


person 


strange 


advice 


handkerchief 


persuade 


succeed 


♦agreement 


heaven 


picnic 


success 


altogether 


height 


pin 


♦sudden 


appetite 


hospital 


plant 


suggest 


application 


♦immediate 


position 


supply 


arrival 


♦indeed 


pour 


suppose 


assist 


♦injure 


press 


surprise 


assistance 


instead 


price 


tear 


♦athletic 


interest 


problem 


telegraph 


attempt 


jealous 


promise 


terrible 


avenue 



Appendix 



255 



baggage 


glorious 


principal 


*support 


balance 


guest 


principle 


*tax 


breast 


imagine 


print 


telephone 


brief 


immediately 


prison 


temperature 


cabin 


importance 


private 


their 


calendar 


impossible 


*progress 


thermometer 


captain 


innocent 


*property 


thin 


catalogue 


jewel 


punish 


thorough 


certain 


least 


purpose 


♦total 


charge 


*local 


pursue 


trust 


citizen 


luncheon 


rate 


unable 


clear 


*manner 


really 


understand 


climate 


material 


receipt 


♦unfortunate 


coal 


mere 


refer 


valuable 


*condition 


museum 


relief 


variety 


contain 


national 


repair 


volume 


decision 


necessary 


report 


wander 


*develop 


newspaper 


request 


weight 


diamond 


note 


♦respectfully 


wife 


dictionary 


♦obedience 


restaurant 


wire 


difference 


oblige 


result 


Seventh Grade 


*direct 


occasion 


return 




due 


odor 


review 


(iji words) 


during 


office 


route 


accident 


*elect 


*omit 


scene 


acknowledge 


*election 


order 


scenery 


♦action 


entertain 


parentage 


search 


♦adopt 


*entitle 


particular 


season 


advertise 


*entrance 


partner 


sheriff 


amount 


*express 


patient 


shine 


♦annual 


extreme 


pavement 


sign 


apply 


factory- 


peculiar 


silver 


appoint 


favor 


physical 


special 


appreciate 


finally 


pity 


spend 


arrange 


foreign 


plan 


spoil 


arrangement 


freight 


plenty 


spread 


association 


further 


political 


steady 


assure 


future 


possible 


stomach 


♦await 


general 


power 


strength 


bargain 


genuine 


prefer 


student 


benefit 



256 



Appendix 



bouquet 


effort 


preparation 


argument 


campaign 


*elaborate 


privilege 


attendance 


candidate 


*emergency 


♦publish 


camphor 


*career 


*empire 


recognize 


♦circular 


catarrh 


*enter 


recommend 


♦circumstance 


cemetery 


*evidence 


reference 


♦convict 


century 


experience 


♦refuse 


corpse 


character 


♦flight 


relative 


department 


check 


gymnasium 


religion 


♦discussion 


college 


honor 


remark 


♦employ 


♦colonies 


illustrate 


remedy 


♦engage 


*combination 


♦increase 


salary 


♦entire 


command 


information 


secretary 


♦estate 


committee 


interrupt 


service 


♦estimate 


complete 


♦investigate 


♦session 


forenoon 


compliment 


invitation 


similar 


♦grant 


conduct 


issue 


signature 


♦improvement 


*conference 


judgment 


single 


♦include 


♦connection 


knowledge 


sleeve 


♦income 


consider 


license 


society 


♦majority 


continue 


manufacture 


♦soft 


member 


convenient 


marriage 


sole 


♦official 


*convention 


mention 


splendid 


proceed 


*cordially 


minister 


♦steamer 


♦provide 


criticize 


moment 


subject 


♦provision 


cylinder 


mortgage 


sufficient 


public 


deal 


nuisance 


superintendent 


♦publication 


death 


♦objection 


system 


♦recover 


♦debate 


obtain 


tariff 


♦responsible 


decide 


offer 


♦testimony 


♦retire 


*declare 


opportunity 


therefore 


secure 


*degree 


opposite 


usually 


♦senate 


*delay 


perfect 


♦various • 


♦summon 


desire 


personal 


yield 


treasure 


♦difficulty 


physician 




vacant 


disappear 


♦population 


Eighth Grade 


♦witness 


distance 
*distribute 


practical 
prairie 


(38 words) 




education 


♦preliminary 


affair 




effect 


prepare 


allege 





INDEX 



Abstract subjects, 122, 154. 
Accrediting of schools, 10. 
Accuracy, 120. 

and speed, 196. 
Adams, Professor John, 57. 
Adaptability of text, 114. 
Adjectives and adverbs, 197, 198, 199. 
Adjustment, social, 168, 171. 
Adverbs and adjectives, 197, 198, 199. 
^Eneid, 117, 118. 

texts in, 117, 118, 135, 140. 
^Esop, 23. 
Alabama, 55. 
Alchemy, 168. 
Algebra, 34, 118, 164, 200-203. 

equations, 164, 200, 201, 202, 203. 

evaluation in, 201. 

fractions in, 194, 200, 202. 

texts in, 140, 202, 203. 
Alphabet, 20. 

Ambiguous expressions, 199. 
American history, 114, 193. 

Simpson, Mabel, on supervising study 
of, 241-244. 

texts in, 87-90, 132, 133, 140, 141. 
Analysis, 150. 

Appearance of textbook, 84, 114, 230. 
Appendix, 119, 187. 
Apperception, 143. 
Application, 8, 85, 162, 163, 168, 171. 
Appreciation, 118. 

lesson in, 137, 152. 
Arithmetic, 7, 15, 57, 160, 188, 200. 

addition, 194. 

colonial textbooks in, 31-34. 

cost of textbooks in, 65, 66. 

division, 194. 

errors in, 79.6, 197. 

fractions, 194. 

Eolloway, on errors in, 196, 197. 



multiplication, 194. 
percentage, 194. 

standards for judging texts in, 118 
Cincinnati, 95-98. 
Forsythe, L. E., 92-95, 96. 
Klapper, 98, 99. 
Mourde, W. S., 193-195. 
Smith, D. E., 99, 100. 
Wilson, G. M., 195, 196. 
texts in, 10 1. 
Aristotle, 14, 17, 19, 172. 
Arizona, 49, 55. 
Art, 172. 
Articles, 197. 

Assignments, 8, 45, 118, 151, 160. 
evaluated, 143. 
in dictionary work, 158. 
page, 144. 
topical, 161. 
Association, 143, 160. 
Assyria, 14. 
Astrology, 168. 
Astronomy, 15, 172, 218. 
Atlas, 158. 

Authors, 67, 114, 138, 162, 179, 241. 
knowing, 184, 185, 186, 188. 
suggestions to pupils, 124-143, 186. 
Autobiographies, 185. 

Babylon, 14. 
Babylonians, 187. 
Bagley, W. C, 44. 
Bibles, 14, 37. 
Bibliographies, 114. 
Binding, 120, 181. 
Bingham, Caleb, 26, 28, 29. 
Biographical dictionary, 157, 160. 
Blueback Speller, 25. 

Boards of Education, 37, 56, 57, 73» 76, 77i 
78,80. 



257 



258 



Index 



Book reviews, 188, 190. 

Books (see also Reading), 123, 148, 163. 

care of, 153, 154. 

open, the, 146. 

organization of, 187, 188. 

Thomdike, E. L., on, 180. 

(See also Textbook, Studying, John 
Locke.) 
Bourne, Henry, on history, 114. 
Brown, J. F., on textbooks, 63, 64. 

Caesar, 23, 115, 116, 117, 134. 
California, 49, 55, 63, 82. 
Capella, 16. 
Captions to tasks, 85. 
Care of books, 153, 154. 
Catalogues, 157. 
Catechism, 22. 
Ceremonies, 169. 
Chapters, 187, 243. 
Charles II, 21. 
Charleston, S. C, 48. 
Charts, 84, 139, 142. 
Cheever, Ezekiel, 23, 35. 
Chemistry, 17, 172, 190. 

qualities of good text in, 105. 

textbook in, 130, 131, 140. 
Chester, Pa., 48. 
Children, appealing to, 84. 
Chronology, 160. 
Cicero, 19, 23. 

textbook in, 235. 
Ciceronianism, 19. 
Cincinnati standards, 82-87, 95-98, 106, 

107, 112, 113. 
Civics, 65, 66, 152, 162. 

texts, 91, 125-127, 135, 136. 
Civil war, the, 193. 
Classics, 19, 43, 172. 
Climate, 220. 
Colloquialisms, 198. 
Colonial development, 193. 
Colonial wars, 193. 
Colorado, 49, 50, 51. 
Combining terms, 201. 
Combustion, 220. 
Comenius, 20, 22, 35, 139. 
Commentaries, 15. 
Commerce, 172, 190. 
Committee of Eight, 192, 193. 



Complex numbers, 202. 
Composition, 150. 

errors in, 197, 199, 200. 
Concentration, 124. 
Concordances, 157. 
Concreteness, 84. 
"Conduct of the Understanding," 123, 175, 

176, 189, 190. 
Connectives, 197, 199. 
Contents, table of, 178, 179, 181, 187, 188, 

243- 
Copyright, 188. 
Corderius, 23. 

Correlation, 152, 157, 160-162, 230. 
Correspondence, 190. 
Cost of textbooks, 58-61, 65-67, 68. 
Course, open book in beginning of, 147. 
Crathome, on algebra, 201, 202. 
Credits, 9. 
Critical study, 189, 190, 228. 

Dates, 114. 

Decatur's standards in reading, 107-110. 

Definiteness, 83. 

Definition of words, 120, 137, 159. 

Definitions, 165. 

Definitions in beginning of books, 163. 

Delaware, 49. 

Description, 119. 

Diacritical marks, 113. 

Diagrams (see Illustrations), 116, 118, 119, 

139, I4i> 142, 143- 
Dictation, 113. 
Dictionary, 20, 119, 146, 157, 160. 

study of, 158-160. 
Difficulties, 146, 148. 
Dilworth's spelling book, 24. 

grammar, 38. 
Doughton, Isaac, on spelling and language, 

110-112. 
Downing, E. R., on zoology, 214-217. 
Disease, 54. 

Discovery and exploration, 193. 
District of Columbia, 49. 
Drafting, 190. 
Drill, 33, 98, 109, 160. 

in algebra, 201. 

Economy of time, 200. 
Editions, 181. 



Index 



259 



Education, 165, 168, 173. 
compulsory, 167. 
formal, 123. 
test of, 152. 
universal, 167. 
Educational values, 116. 
Educative process, 122. See Learning 

Process. 
Educators, 195. 
Egypt, 14. 
Egyptians, 14, 187. 

Elementary schools, 63, 110-112, 138, 153, 
158, 160, 188, 191, 194, 197, 198, 
199, 200. 
Elementary school subjects, 192-200. 
American history, 192, 193. 
arithmetic, 7, 15, 31-34, 57, 65, 66, 95- 
98, 99, 100, 160, 188, 193, 194, 195, 
196, 197, 200. 
geography, 17, 34, 35, 37, 59, 106, 119. 
grammar and language, 17, 18, 19, 29, 30, 
38, 65, 113, 119, 197, 198, 199, 200, 
204-2 1 1 . 
spelling, 110-113, 158, 160, 196, 197, 
247-256. 
Elizabeth, N. J., 48. 
Encyclopedia, 157, 160. 
Engineering, 190. 

English, 17, 18, 19, 29, 30, 38, 3* 46, 65, 
113, 119, 197, 198, I99-:.jo, 204-211. 
and algebra, 201. 
cost of texts in, 65. 
courses in, 158, 159. 

errors in, 197, 199, 200. See Composi- 
tion; Grammar and Language; 
Literature ; Spelling. 
Enrollment, 52. 
Environment, 169. 
Equations, 164, 200, 201. 
graphing of, 201. 
linear, 202, 203. 
quadratic, 201, 202. 
simple, 200. 
simultaneous, 201. 
Ethics, 19. 
Eutropius, 23. 
Evaluation in algebra, 201. 
Everyman's Library, 193-196. 
Examinations, 147. 
Exceptions, 120. 



Explanations, 145, 146. 

Fitzpatrick, F. A., on Bookmen, 78. 

Florida, 55. 

Footnotes, 119. 

Foreign language. See Latin. 

textbooks in, 115. 

use of dictionary in, 158, 159. 
Formulas, evaluation of, 201. 
Forsythe, L. E., on arithmetic, 92-95, 96. 
Four fundamentals, the, 194, 202. 
Fractions, in algebra, 194, 200, 202. 
Fractional equations, 200. 
Free textbooks, 48-55, 61-63, 67, 149. 

advantages of, 51-53. 

and underscoring, 149. 

cost of, 58-61, 65-67, 68. 

disadvantages of, 53-54. 

general distribution of, 51. 

Gazetteer, 158, 160. 
Genealogical tables, 115. 
Geography, 17, 188. • 

Cincinnati standards, 106. 

colonial texts in, 34, 35, 37. 

cost of texts in, 59. 

Raymonds standards, 119. 
Geometry, 15, 17. 

committee on, 204. 

Euclidean vs. modern, 191, 203. 

standards for judging texts, 100, 119. 

texts in, 102-104, 129, 130, 140, 211, 212, 
213. 
Georgia, 55. 
Gestures, 169. 

Graded difficulty in texts, 94, 106, 109, 120. 
Grammar, 17, 18, 19, 119, 197-200. 

Betts and Marshall, on, 199. 

Colonial, 29, 30, 38. 

cost of texts in, 65. 

errors in, 197-200. 

formal, 113. 

Meek, on, 197, 198. 

proposed course in, 204-211. 

Randolph, E. D., on, 199. 

Sears and Diebel, on, 199. 

Thompson, on, 197. 
Graphs, 84, 85, 202. 

Harris, W. T., on textbook, 10. 
Harvard, 35. 



260 



Index 



Heat, 220. 

Hebrew, 35. 

High school, 45, 153, 185, 191. 

girls, texts for, 218. 
High school subjects : 

algebra, 34, 118, 164, 194, 200-203. 

geometry, 15, 17, 100, 119, 129, 130, 140, 
191, 203, 204, 211, 212, 213. 

history, 84, 87-90, 113-115, 132, 133, 
140, 141, 220-227. 

science, 139, 140, 150, 152, 160, 215-220, 

235- 
Historical veracity, 114. 
History, 17, 19, 36, 37, 57, "9, J 46, 147, 
152, 160, 172, 188, 220-227. 

American, 114, 193, 241-244. 

cost of texts on, 65, 66. 

qualities of good text in, 84. 

Simpson, Mabel, on, 241-244. 

standards for judging texts in, 113-115. 

supervised study in, 241-244. 

texts in, 87-90, 132, 133, 140, 141, 220- 
227. 
Hoboken, N. J., 48. 
Homonyms, 197. 
Hornbook, 21. 
Household arts, 122. 
Hygiene : 

and sanitation, 220. 

cost of books in, 65, 66. 

Idaho, 49, 55. 
Ideals, 173. 
Ideas, 171, 173. 

general, 150, 152. 
Ignorance, 167. 

Illustrations, 84, 85, 94, 95, 98, 105, 114, 
115, 116, 119, 120, 139-142, 203, 
220, 230. 
Imagination, 85. 
Imitation, motor, 168. 
Impression, energetic first, 238. 
Incentive, textbook as an, 230-239. 
Index, 86, 94, 114, 151, 178, 181, 187, 241. 
Industry, 172. 
Inserted pages, 151. 
Instruction, oral, 168. 
Interpretation, 145. 

factors of, 184-192, 227, 228. 

textbook as means of, 183-228. 



Introduction, the, 116, 117, 118, 128, 186- 

188, 228. 
Iowa, 49. 
Israel, 14. 

Jersey City, 48. 

Judging textbooks, 73-119. 

Bourne's standards in history, 114, 115. 
Cincinnati standards : 
in arithmetic, 95-98. 
in geography, 106. 
in reading, 82-87, 107. 
in spelling and language, 112, 113. 
Decatur's standards on readers, 107-110. 
Doughton's, Isaac, standards in spelling 

and language, 110-112. 
Forsythe's, L. E., plan in arithmetic, 92- 

95, 96. 
Klapper's standards in arithmetic, 98, 99. 
Raymont's summary of standards, 118, 

119. 
Smith's, D. E., standards in mathe- 
matics, 99, 100. 
in geometry, 100. 
Smith and Hall, on chemistry and 

physics, 105. 
Twiss, on science, 215. 
Wayland's standards in history, 113, 
114. 
Judgment in daily living, 150. 
Judgment in studying, 149. 

Kansas, 49, 55, 63, 64-66. 
Kendall, H. P., on reading, 80. 
Kentucky, 55. 

Kerfoot, on "How to read," 159. 
Klapper, on arithmetic, 98, 99. 
Knowledge, 15, 122, 123, 138, 142, 152, 
167, 173, 192, 230. 

acquisition of, 171. 

how it began, 168-170. 

must be viewed as a system, 173, 174. 

observation point of, 183. 

principles underlying textbook, 171, 172. 

textbook as source of, 1 67-1 81. 

Laboratory courses, 40, 123. 
Language, 172, 197-200. 

cost of textbooks in, 66. 

errors in, 197-200. 



Index 



261 



Languages. See Latin. 

foreign, 158, 159. 

modern, 134, 139. 
Latin, 15, 17, 19, 23, 24, 35, 43, 115, 134. 

textbooks in, 11 5-1 18, 135, 140, 235, 

237- 
Learning, 160, 161, 167. 
Learning process, 20, 140, 143, 145. See 

Educative process. 
Lecture method, 7. 
Libraries, 161. 
Light, 220. 

Lily (Robertson's edition of), 19, 35. 
Limits, 211. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 28. 
Lisbon, 14. 
Literature, 17, 46, 118, 147, 152, 160, 164, 

172. 
textbooks in, 128, 131, 136. 
Locke, John, on reading, 123, 175, 176, 189, 

190. 
Logarithms, 202. 
Logic, 18. 
Louisiana, 56. 
Loyola, 17. 

McMurry, Chas., on textbook, 4, 5. 

Magazines, 45, 67. 

Magic, 168. 

Magnetism, 220. 

Maine, 49. 

Man, 168, 171. 

Manual training, 122. 

Maps, 114, 116, 117, 119, 140, 141. 

Maryland, 49. 

Massachusetts, 52, 77. 

Mathematics, 6, 172. 

Breslich, on, 102-104, 129, 130, 140, 
213. 

general, 101, 212-214. 

history of, 187. 

recent texts in, 162. 

Smith, D. E., on, 99, 100. 

See Algebra; Arithmetic; Geometry. 
Meaning, 169, 171. 
Mechanical make-up of textbook, 86, 95, 

109, no, 114, 120. 
Melancthon, 17-19. 

Memorizing, 122, 124, 143, 144, 14s, 
146. 



Memory, 115, 122, 160, 189. 
Mental discipline, 163. 
Michigan, 49. 

Ministers in colonies, 23, 24. 
Minnesota, 49. 
Mispronunciation, 198, 199. 
Mississippi, 56. 
Missouri, 49. 

University of, 199. 
Monohan, A. C, 53. 
Monroe, W. S., on arithmetic, 193-195. 

on algebra, 200, 201. 
Montana, 49, 55. 
Moors, 187. 
Morals, 172. 
Morphology, 214. 
Multiplication in algebra, 202. 
Myths, 168. 

Narration, ng. 

National Geographic Magazine, 45. 

Natural history, 17. 

Natural philosophy, 17. 

Natural science, 119. 

N. E. A., 78. 

Nebraska, 49. 

Negatives, double, 197, 198, 199. 

Nevada, 49, 55. 

New Hampshire, 49. 

New Jersey, 49, 187, 188. 

New Mexico, 55. 

New York, 49. 

Nicholson, Anne, on textbook standards, 

82. 
North Carolina, 56. 
North Dakota, 49. 
Notations on inserted pages, 151. 
Notebook, 132, 151. 
Notes, 116, 117, 119. 

Occupations, 194. 

Ohio, 49. 

Oklahoma, 56. 

Omissions, 197. 

Oral instruction, 168. 

Orbis Pictus, 20, 22, 35, 139. 

Oregon, 56. 

Oriental, the, 168. 

Outlines, 84, 118, 119, 125-127, 150. 

Ovid, 23. 



262 



Index 



Panama-Pacific Exposition, 20. 

Papyrus, 14. 
Paragraphs, 243. 
Parentheses, removal of, 201. 
Paris, 14. 
Pennsylvania, 49. 
Percentage, 194. 
Perception, 143. 
Periodical guides, 158. 
Philadelphia, 48. 
Physics, 5, 19, 172, 203. 

standards of textbooks in, 105. 

textbooks in, 131, 140, 235. 
Physiology, 220. 
Plato, 17, 172, 173- 
Plots, 118. 
Politics, 64. 
Prayer books, 14. 
Preface, 117, 185, 186. 
Prepositions, 199. 
Pre-revolutionary period, 193. 
Preview, 181. 

inspirational, 232-239. 
Priestcraft, 168. 
Primers, 21-24, 43> 60. 
Principles of textbook making, illustrated : 

Algebra (Cajori-Odell), 202. 

Algebra (Hawkes-Tuby-Touton), 140, 
203. 

Algebra (Schultze), 202. 

Algebra, Practical (Collins), 202. 

American Beginnings in Europe (Gordy), 
141. 

American History (Ashley), 132, 133, 
140. 

American History for Grammar Schools 
(Dickson), 87-90, 132, 140. 

Ancient World, The (West), 141. 

Arithmetic (Gilbert), 101. 

Arithmetic (Walsh-Suzzalo), 101. 

Caesar's Gallic Wars, Books I and II 
(Riess and James), 115-117. 

Chemistry (Morgan and Lyman), 130, 
131, 140. 

Cicero, Select Orations (D'Ooge), 235. 

Civic Biology (Hunter), 91. 

Composition, Elements of (Canby and 
Opdyke), 238. 

Composition and Rhetoric (Thomas and 
Howe), 237, 



Education, History of Modern Elemen- 
tary (Graves), 127. 

Education, Student's History of 
. (Graves), 127. 

English Composition (Canby and 
Others), 142. 

English, Practical, for High Schools 
(Lewis and Hosic), 240-241. 

French, The First Book in (Maloubier 
and Moore), 140. 

Geography (Frye), 141. 

Geography (Tarr and McMurry), 141. 

Geography, Commercial (Garrison- 
Houston), 141. 

Geography, New Physical (Tarr), 137, 
138. 

Geometry, Constructive (Hedrick), 212. 

Geometry, New Plane (Robbins), 212. 

Geometry, Plane (Betz and Webb), 
212. 

Geometry, Plane (Palmer and Taylor), 
211. 

Geometry, Plane (Young and Schwartz), 
211. 

Geometry, Plane and Solid (Ford and 
Am merman), 211. 

History, Supervised Study in American 
(Simpson), 241-244. 

Human Behavior (Colvin and Bagley,) 

129, 130. 

Latin, a Year in (Montgomery), 237. 
Literature, American (Long), 136. 
Literature, English and American 

' (Long), 128, 131. 
Mathematics, Correlated (Long and 

Brenke), 213. 
Mathematics, General (Breslich), 102- 

104, 129, 130, 140, 213. 
Mathematics, Secondary School (Short 

and Elson), 213. 
Mathematics, Vocational (Dooley), 90, 

130, 140. 

Physics, a First Course in (Milliken and 

Gale), 140. 
Physics, Practical (Black and Davis), 

131, 235- 

Readers (McMann and Haaren), 237. 
Science, Elementary (Coulter), 235. 
Science, First Course in General (Bar- 
ber), 140. 



Index 



263 



Social Problems (Towne), 125-127, 135, 
136. 

Virgil's ^Eneid (Fairclough and Brown), 
117, 118, 135, 140. 
Printing, 120, 211. 
Printing press, 17. 

Problems, 93, 97, 105, 119, 131, 157, 160, 
162, 163, 165, 168, 172, 194, 195, 
196, 203, 242. 
Proclus, on geometry, 100. 
Programs of study, 6. 
Progress of pupils, 9. 
Pronouns, misuse of, 198, 199. 
Pronunciation, 86, 158. 
Proper names, 186. 

pronunciation of, 86. 
Proportion, 84, 114, 202. 
Prosody, 117. 
Publication, 158, 186. 

date and place of, 114, 176, 177, 181. 
Publishers, 10, n, 59, 114, 176, 241. 

knowing the, 184, 185. 
Pupils, 9, 24, 37, 47, 56, 57, 63, 65, 151. 

aids for, in textbook, 85, 124-143, 186. 

progress of, 9. 

reactions by, in studying, 148-154, 188, 
189. 

stimulation of, 174, 175. 

Quadratic equations, 201, 202. 
Questions, 131-136. 

Racial experience, 170. 
Radicals, 202. 

Raymont, on standards, 118, 119. 
Readers. See Books, Reading. 

Bingham's, Caleb, 28. 

colonial, 27-29, 37. 

cost of, 65, 66. 

standards in, 82-87, 1 07-1 10. 

texts in, 237. 
Reading. See Books, Readers. 

and study, 123, 144, 159. 

at sight, 116. 

hygiene of, 86. 

Kerfoot on, 159. 

Locke, John, on, 123, 175, 176, 189, 190. 

New Jersey Bulletin on, 187, 188. 
Recall, 128, 129, 143. 
Recitation, 144, 146, 152. 



Record card for books loaned, 55. 
Redundancy, 197, 199. 
Reference books, 14, 157. 

classified, 157, 158. 
References, cross, 151, 152, 154, 178, 244. 
References for additional reading, 138, 139, 

165, 230. 
Reflection, 171. 
Religion, 172. 
Religious character of early schools in 

America, 23, 24. 
Renaissance, 19. 

Reorganization of books, 157, 163, 164. 
Reports, 158. 

Reviews, 84, 128, 129, 145, 234. 
Revolution, the American, 193. 
Rhetoric, 19, 117. 
Rhode Island, 49. 
Rich, S. G., on general mathematics, 

193- 

Rites, 169. 

Rome, 14. 

Rousseau, on misuse of books, 175. 

Rules, 120, 165. 

Russell Sage Foundation, 52. 

Scales, 85, 191, 192. 
School administrator, 74. 
School books. See Textbook. 

early colonial, 36. 
Schools, criticism of, 39. 

accrediting of, 9, 10. 
School subjects. See Subject-matter. 

meaning of, 170, 171. 
Science, general, 215-220. 

texts in, 140, 235. 
Sciences, 139, 150, 152, 160. 
Selection of textbooks, 73-82. 
Sentences : 

incomplete, 197. 

short, 84. 

wrong construction, 199. 
Seven Liberal Arts, 16. 
Shakespeare, 43. 
Sherer, A. L., 64. 
Signs in algebra, 202. 
Simpson, Mabel, on Supervised Study in 

American History, 241-244. 
Skill, 152. 
Slang, 159. 



264 



Index 



Smith, Dr. D. E., 99-100. 

Smith, Dr. Frank W ., 16. 

Sound, 220. 

South Carolina, 56. 

South Dakota, 49. 

Speed and accuracy in arithmetic, 196. 

Spelling, 158, 160, 196, 197. 

new list of words, 247-256. 
Spelling books, 24-27. 

Blueback Speller, 25. 

colonial, 24-27, 37, 38. 

cost of, 65, 66. 

standards for judging, 110-112, 113. 
State teachers' associations, 78. 
Statistical Bulletins, 158. 
Studying : 

and reading, 86, 116, 123, 144, 159, 175, 
176, 189, 190. 

conditions of, 124. 

critical, 188-190. 

habits of, 106, 124, 188, 189. 

memorizing, 122, 124, 143, 144, 145, 
146. 

methods of, 122-154, 187, 188, 189. 

reactions by pupils, 148-154, 188, 189. 

recall, 128, 129, 143. 

stimulus to, 174, 175. 

suggestions by teacher, 143-148. 

textbooks as help in, 8, 114, 118, 123- 

. * 43 * 
training pupils in, 123, 161, 204. 

Sturm, 17. 

Style, 84, 114, 120, 179, 181. 

Subject-matter, 44, 67, 114, 132, 144, 168, 

171, 183, 230, 231. 

development of, 9. 

evaluation and adaptation of, 190, 191. 

in arithmetic, 7, 15, 31-34, 57. 65, 66, 
160, 188, 194, 196, 197, 200. 

in geometry, 204-211. 

in general science, 215-220. 

in history, 220-227. 

in zoology, 214, 215, 216, 217. 
Subtraction in algebra, 201. 
Summaries, 128-131, 136-138, 152, 153. 
Superintendent, 76. 
Supervision, 24, 56, 143, 161. 
Supplementary books, 52, 58, 63, 145, 154, 

158. 
Supplementary work, 161. 



Synonyms, 159. 
Syntax, 117. 

Tables, 139, 142. 

Table of contents, 178, 179, 181, 188, 243. 

Tariff act of 1913, 44. 

Taxation, 68. 

Teacher : 

reorganization of books by, 164. 

suggestions for study by, 143-148. 
Teaching, provisions for in textbooks, 85, 

122-143. 
Tennessee, 56. 

Tennyson's tribute to Virgil, 118. 
Term's work, outlining, 238, 239. 
Texas, 49, 56. 
Textbook : 

adaptability of, 114. 

adoption of, 80, 81. 
'advantages of, 10. 

age of, 20. 

appearance of, 84, 114, 230. 

as a guide, 157-165. 

as a means of interpreting truth, 183, 
228, 190. 

as a source of knowledge, 1 67-1 81. 

as a tool, 122-154. 

as an incentive or inspiration, 230-239. 

binding, 120, 181. 

book reviews, 188, 190. 

care of, 54, 153, 154. 

chapters, 187, 243. 

colonial, 20-40. 

cost of, 58-61, 65-67, 68. 

course on, 1, 2. 

disadvantages of, 4, 5, 53, 54. 

editions, 181. 

eliminations to be made from, 97. 

free, 48-55, 61-63, 67, 149. 

history of, 14-40. 

how begin to be written, 81. 

inadequacy of, 4. 

in Germany, 40. 

judging, 73-120. 

kinds, 44-48, 67. 

meaning of, 43, 44. 

mechanical make-up, 86, 95, 109, no, 
114, 120. 

mediaeval, 14-16, 43. 

methods of studying, 114. 



Index 



265 



principles of making, illustrated, 87, 90, 
91, 101, 102-104, 115-117, 127, 128, 
129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 136, 137, 
138, 140, 141, 142, 202, 203, 213, 
235, 237, 238, 240, 241-244. 

problem for investigation, 1. 

qualities of, 83. 

rapid increase of, 39. 

Renaissance, 16-20. 

selection of, 73-82. 

state uniformity, 63, 64. 

uniform, 52, 55-58. 
- why prominent, 2, 3. 
Twiss, on science, 215. 

Underscoring, 149, 150. 
Understanding, 122, 137, 143, 150, 152, 
168, 169. 

"Conduct of Understanding," 123, 175, 
176, 189, 190. 
Uniform textbooks, 52, 55-58. 

arguments for and against, 56, 57. 
Uniformity, national, 58. 
Uniformity, state, 56, 66, 68. 
Unity, 83. 
Utah, 49, 56. 



Vatican, 14. 

Verbs, 197, 198, 199. 

Verification, 150. 

Vermont, 49. 

Virgil, 23, 116, 117, 134. 

Virginia, 56. 

Vocabulary, 119. 

in foreign languages, 116. 

in readers, 108, 109, 119. 
Voice training in readers, 109. 

Washington, 49. 

Wayland's standards for judging history 

texts, 113, 114. 
Weather, 220. 

Webster, Noah, 25, 29, 37, 38. 
West Virginia, 49. 

Wilson, G. M., on arithmetic, 195, 196. 
Wisconsin, 49, 190, 191. 
World War, the, 193. 
Writing books, cost of, 65, 66. 
Wyoming, 49. 

Yearbook, 157, 158. 

Zoology, 214, 215, 216, 217. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



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By ALFRED L. HALL-QUEST 

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Cloth, i2tno, xvii + 433 pages, $1.25 

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Supervised Study in American History 

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Edited by Professor ALFRED L. HALL-QUEST 

in the Supervised Study Series 

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This is a detailed outline of suggestive lessons touching upon 
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In preparation 

In his practical treatment of the importance of play to our 

American teachers, Dr. Curtis is of the opinion that play should 

be considered a vital factor in winning this war. He points out 

that with the teachers rests the problem of the general physical 

unfitness that is being brought to light by the selection of men for 

our army. If the teachers will develop an enthusiasm for sports 

and outdoor life, this spirit will pervade the student body and the 

problem of physical fitness will be solved. 



The Psychology of Childhood 

By NAOMI NORSWORTHY, Ph.D. 

Formerly Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Teachers 
College, Columbia University 

AND 

MARY T. WHITLEY, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University 
Brief Course Series in Education. Edited by Paul Monroe 

In preparation 

In The Psychology of Childhood constant emphasis has been 
thrown on the physiological basis of the tendencies discussed, and 
Thorndike's classification of instincts, on the basis of responses 
made, is adhered to throughout. Though in some instances sug- 
gestions for teaching are made, yet the greatest space is devoted 
to a descriptive study of children as differentiated from adults. 

To the end that the book may be used as a textbook the authors 
have employed such special features as marginal questions, topical 
headings, limited references, and, with each chapter, sets of ques- 
tions consisting of " exercises" and " questions for discussion." 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 

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